H U M A N R I G H T S “I Wanted to Lie Down and Die” Trafficking and Torture of Eritreans in Sudan and Egypt WATCH “I Wanted to Lie Down and Die” Trafficking and Torture of Eritreans in Sudan and Egypt Copyright © 2014 Human Rights Watch All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America ISBN: 978-1-62313-0978 Cover design by Rafael Jimenez Human Rights Watch is dedicated to protecting the human rights of people around the world. We stand with victims and activists to prevent discrimination, to uphold political freedom, to protect people from inhumane conduct in wartime, and to bring offenders to justice. We investigate and expose human rights violations and hold abusers accountable. We challenge governments and those who hold power to end abusive practices and respect international human rights law. We enlist the public and the international community to support the cause of human rights for all. 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For more information, please visit our website: http://www.hrw.org FEBRUARY 2014 978-1-62313-0978 “I Wanted to Lie Down and Die” Trafficking and Torture of Eritreans in Sudan and Egypt Map .................................................................................................................................. iv Summary ........................................................................................................................... 1 Recommendations ............................................................................................................. 11 To the Government of Egypt .................................................................................................... 11 To the Government of Sudan ................................................................................................... 12 To the Government of Ethiopia ................................................................................................ 12 To the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees ........................................................... 12 To the League of Arab States and the African Union ................................................................. 13 To Donor Governments Providing Support to UNHCR, Egypt, Ethiopia, and Sudan ................... 13 Methodology .....................................................................................................................14 I. Background ................................................................................................................... 16 Fleeing Eritrea ........................................................................................................................ 16 Eritrean Refugees in the Horn of Africa and Egypt .................................................................... 17 Refugee Camps in Eastern Sudan ..................................................................................... 17 Refugee Camps in Ethiopia ............................................................................................... 19 Eritreans in Cairo ................................................................................................................... 20 II. Trafficking of Eritreans in Sudan ................................................................................... 22 The Shift from Smuggling to Trafficking in Eastern Sudan ........................................................ 22 Kidnapping, Abuse and Torture of Trafficking Victims in Eastern Sudan ................................... 24 Transfer to Egyptian Traffickers ............................................................................................... 27 Sudanese Security Force Collusion with Traffickers in Eastern Sudan ..................................... 28 III. Trafficking of Eritreans in Egypt ................................................................................... 31 Trafficker Abuses in Sinai ....................................................................................................... 31 Violence, Extortion, Forced Labor, and Death .................................................................... 32 Number of Victims, Length of Time Held, Trafficker Identities and Locations ..................... 40 Local Community Attempts to End Trafficking .......................................................................... 41 Egyptian Security Force Collusion with Traffickers ................................................................... 42 Collusion at the Nile ......................................................................................................... 43 Collusion at Checkpoints .................................................................................................. 45 Collusion at the Suez Canal .............................................................................................. 45 Other Collusion Cases in Sinai .......................................................................................... 47 IV. Sudan’s and Egypt’s Failure to Investigate Trafficking, Collusion, and Torture ............. 50 Legal Obligations ................................................................................................................... 50 Obligations to Investigate Trafficking, Related Abuses and Security Force Collusion with Traffickers ........................................................................................................................ 51 Obligations to Investigate Torture ..................................................................................... 54 Sudan’s Limited Steps to Investigate ...................................................................................... 56 Egypt’s Failure to Investigate Despite Detailed Evidence ......................................................... 57 Egyptian Officials’ Denials of Trafficking and Related Abuses in Sinai ...................................... 59 Partial Acknowledgment by Anti-Trafficking Committee of Trafficker Abuses ........................... 62 Possible Impact of Egyptian Military Operations in Sinai in Late 2013 ...................................... 63 The Broader Sinai Context ...................................................................................................... 64 V. Fate of Escaped or Released Trafficking Victims ........................................................... 67 Egyptian Security Force Border Shootings .............................................................................. 68 Arbitrary Detention in Sinai’s Police Stations ......................................................................... 69 The Decision to Detain .................................................................................................... 69 Detainees’ Lack of Access to UNHCR and Asylum Procedures ............................................ 72 Detention Conditions and Lack of Access to Medical Care and Other Assistance ............... 74 Transfer of Eritreans to Ethiopia .............................................................................................. 76 Local Community Assistance to Trafficking Victims and Transfer to Cairo ................................. 77 Lack of UNHCR Access to Detainees outside Sinai ................................................................... 77 Acknowledgments ............................................................................................................ 79 A Survivor’s Story The first group of kidnappers said I had to pay $3,500. They blindfolded all of us and chained our hands and legs together. They threatened to remove our organs if we didn’t pay. Even though my family paid, they didn’t release me but instead sold me to a second group. The second kidnappers said we had to pay them $33,000 because they had bought us from the first group, so we had to help them get their money back. They beat me with a metal rod. They dripped molten plastic onto my back. They beat the soles of my feet and then they forced me to stand for long periods of time, sometimes for days. Sometimes they threatened to kill me and put a gun to my head. They hung me from the ceiling so my legs couldn’t reach the floor and they gave me electric shocks. One person died after they hung him from the ceiling for 24 hours. We watched him die. Whenever I called my relatives to ask them to pay, they burnt me with a hot iron rod so I would scream on the phone. We could not protect the women in our room: they just took them out, raped them, and brought them back. They hardly let us sleep and I thought I was going to die but in the end a group of us managed to escape. Human Rights Watch interview, November 14, 2012, with a 23 year-old Eritrean man kidnapped by traffickers near Sudan’s Shagarab refugee camp in March 2012. These traffickers handed him over to Egyptian traffickers in southern Egypt, who held him in Sinai with 24 other men and eight women for six weeks. I HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH | FEBRUARY 2014 A Trafficker’s Story I buy Eritreans from other Bedouin near my village for about $10,000 each. So far I have bought about 100. I keep them in a small hut about 20 kilometers from where I live and I pay two men to stand guard. I torture them so their relatives pay me to let them go. When I started a year ago, I asked for $ 20,000