Report: Eritrean military trafficking children to Sudan, Sinai
Traffico di esseri umani dall'Eritrea al Sinai: un fenomeno atroce che dimostra da
anni come le autorità politiche e religiose dell’Eritrea, dell'Egitto, del Sudan e
degli altri paesi coinvolti in questo barbaro commercio si mostrino
indifferenti e spesso complici del crimine organizzato e dei movimenti
terroristici, che traggono finanziamento proprio dalla vendita di armi,
droga, esseri umani e organi.
A new report published on Wednesday
claims that Eritrean and Sudanese military officers are jointly working
on trafficking thousands of Eritrean children who are being held
hostage for ransom in Sudan and further sold on to a trafficking network
in Sinai, Egypt.
The report titled: “The Human Trafficking Cycle:
Sinai and Beyond”, said Eritrea’s Border Surveillance Unit (BSU), which
is under the command of General Teklai Kifle locally known as ‘Teklai
Manjus’ is responsible for the human trafficking operations of children
who, according to the report, are even as young as two or three years
old.
Researchers, by Prof. Mirjam van Reisen, Meron Estefanos and Prof. Conny Rijken,
said the children are abducted and first smuggled to neighbouring Sudan
where captives are asked to raise as much as 10,000 dollars or are
threatened to be sold to Bedouin traffickers in Sinai.
The
children, the report for the Europe External Policy Advisors alleges,
are sold with the help of Sudanese military officers who collude with
Sinai smugglers.
Once they are in the hands of Bedouin
traffickers, the children are often subjected to torture and different
forms of inhuman treatments so as to push their relatives to pay the
demanded ransom.
An Eritrean opposition official on Friday told Sudan Tribune
that if relatives fail to raise the money the children either are
tortured to death or will be subjected to organ harvesting such as to
the extraction of kidneys.
According to the report, between 2007 and 2012 up to 30,000 children were trafficked from inside Eritrea.
Many others were also kidnapped from refugee camps in Sudan.
An estimated 5,000 to 10,000 hostages have died in captivity. Many who managed to pay the ransom were also among the victims.
Among
the several kidnapping incidents the report mentioned on the kidnapping
of 211 children in October 2013 from a camp in Sudan.
Captors then demanded a ransom of $10,000 per head to release the children.
According to the study, some $600 million have been extorted in ransoms during the past five years.
Most of the children who are freed after the ransom payout are arrested by Egyptian security and are jailed indefinitely.
Every month, an average of 3,000 Eritreans cross borders to Sudan fleeing repression by regime in Asmara.
Currently there are nearly 100,000 Eritrean refugees at a camp in eastern Sudan.
The
study by the Swedish and Dutch researchers was based on the interviews
with 230 Eritreans who survived the trafficking and the torture in
Sinai.
The report has been presented to the European Union parliament.
Source Sudan Tribune
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