Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Rome (Agenzia Fides) - "The situation of refugees and Eritrean refugees in Egypt is even more dramatic: we have been denouncing the kidnapping of people, human beings for one year, which is ongoing in Sinai at the refugees expense", says a statement sent to Fides by don Mussie Zerai, an Eritrean priest and President of the Habeshia Agency for Development Cooperation. The priest underlines that the victims of human trafficking, stopped by the border police, in theory are protected by the Egyptian law enacted a year ago. "In fact - the statement says – this law is never applied: we have had hundreds of refugees first victims of traffickers, now victims of the state in various police stations, and in some cases military camps".
Many of the refugees in detention are refugees recognized by UNHCR (UN High Commissioner for Refugees), even before their arrival in Egypt, when they were in refugee camps in Sudan and Ethiopia. "In these 4 - 5 years Egypt has limited shooting the victims of traffickers on the border with Israel; the world watched this slaughter of innocents passively, whose only crime is to seek freedom and a better life" stresses Don Zerai. "From the testimony of many refugees and displaced persons held, it seems that the conditions of life in these police stations are really bad, in some cases dangerous to their health", said the priest
"We ask the International Community and all human rights organizations to put pressure on the Egyptian government to allow the access of UNHCR operators to the various stations where there are hundreds of refugees that the Egyptian government holds without giving them the opportunity to access the right of asylum. Among them are people paralyzed due to the shooting on behalf of the Egyptian border police, children and pregnant women", concludes don Zerai. (L.M.) (Agenzia Fides 28/09/2011)
