Hamas smugglers are now demanding $10,000 per Eritrean Refugee !

Hamas smugglers are now demanding $10,000 per Eritrean Refugee !

Urgent action needed: an appeal for the liberation of 250 African migrants

In the photographs, Eritrean Refugees in Libya (July 2010); marks of the tortures in refugees' bodies in Libya; Palestinian smugglers in the tunnels connecting the Egyptian Rafah with the Palestinian Rafah and Gaza

To:

the Secretary General of the United Nations Ban Ki-moon

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navanethem Pillay

UN High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres

UN Special Rapporteur on Trafficking in Human Beings

the President of the European Parliament Jerzy Buziek

the Rapporteur on the EU Refugee Resettlement Programme Rui Tavares

the President of the European Commission Jose Manuel Barroso

the President of the Council of the European Union Yves Leterme

the President of the European Council Herman Van Rompuy

the President of the Arab Republic of Egypt Hosni Mubarak

Mrs. Suzanne Mubarak

the President of the Palestinian National Authority Mahmoud Abbas all democratic governments and institutions

Urgent action needed: an appeal for the liberation of 250 African migrants being held prisoner in the Sinai by traffickers, and their resettlement in the European Union For over a month about 250 Eritrean refugees have been in the hands of traffickers in northern Sinai.

Eight young men have been killed, and four have disappeared, probably ending up on the black market of human organ trafficking.

One hundred Eritreans have been transferred to an unknown concentration camp, perhaps in Palestine.

Dozens of young women and children had been raped and injured.

All the refugees have suffered torture and beatings.

Pregnant women have miscarried and many prisoners are dying.

The refugees paid Hamas' smugglers $2,000 to get to the Israeli border, but their captors are now demanding $10,000 per person.

The prisoners eat poor food and are forced to drink their own urine.

Most of the migrants are contemplating suicide.

Despite the intervention of the United Nations; despite an urgent

resolution of the European Parliament; despite the indignation of the

civilized world; and despite the support and documentation provided

by Agenzia Habeshia, EveryOne Group and the human rights network

of NGOs, the authorities have still not carried out any inspections of the

locations that have been pointed out to them (in the town of Rafah).

They have not spoken to the witnesses, or carried out any attempt to rescue the refugees.

The reason is quite clear: behind the trafficking and tunnels linking Egypt to the Palestinian border; the episodes of extortion, torture,

rape and murder; behind the foul trafficking in human beings and organs; behind the crimes that serve to fund terrorism and to make huge profits for unscrupulous people is a criminal organization so powerful that it is able to challenge and defy governments: the Muslim Brotherhood (the organization Hamas belongs to) and Al-Qaeda. For this reason, the emergency of the African refugees is a challenge to civilization, a challenge that the Egyptian government must face with courage and urgency.

It must not only ensure the release of the 250 human beings exposed to a tragedy reminiscent of Auschwitz, it must also recover the strengths and the independence that lie at the foundation of democratic and republican values.

The Government of the Republic of Egypt, however, must be helped in its stand for civilization and life. It is important that the

Egyptian institutions are supported by the Palestinian National Authority, the United Nations, the European Union and all democratic countries.

That is why we are appealing to the President of the Arab Republic of Egypt, Hosni Mubarak, and his wife Suzanne (a woman who has long been committed to fighting human trafficking) to ensure that the government authorities are carrying out effective investigations and have a genuine intention of freeing the prisoners and punishing their captors.

That is why we are asking the President of the Palestinian National Authority, President Mahmoud Abbas, to cooperate in the rescue

of the refugees by identifying their Palestinian kidnappers, whose leader is the notorious Abu Khaled, a member of the Hamas organization.

We also ask him to fight the horrifying trafficking in human beings and organs through the tunnels between Rafah and Palestine,

which are controlled by Hamas.

That is why we are asking the United Nations, and, in particular, the High Commissioner for Human Rights, the High Commissioner

for Refugees and the Special Rapporteur on Trafficking in Human Beings to do everything in their power to put pressure on governments that are still able to save the refugees and combat the hateful trafficking in human beings.

That is why we are asking the Parliament of the European Union and, in particular, the Rapporteur on the EU Refugee

Resettlement Programme to carry on demanding that the Government of Egypt and the Palestinian Authorities take concrete action to free the hostages and arrest the kidnappers.

We are asking that they also provide a resettlement plan for the 250 African migrants in the EU.

That is why we are asking all civil and democratic institutions to ensure that justice is done, and that there will be an end to all violations of the African refugees' rights before it is too late.

For EveryOne Group, Roberto Malini, Matteo Pegoraro, Dario Picciau

For Agenzia Habeshia, Don Mussi Zerai