Transcript + 972 Report

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WATCH: Refugees smuggled to Israel face organ theft in Sinai
CNN and Egypt’s Channel 25 released this week chilling video
reports lending credence to rumors of an emerging organ trade in
the Sinai Peninsula
By Noa Yachot
Thanks to a spate of media interest over the last year, the numerous
ordeals faced by African refugees smuggled to Israel have been welldocumented. Detailed reports in the press and by rights organizations
have covered the exorbitant amounts Bedouin smugglers demand for the
coveted trip from the Horn of Africa to the Holy Land, along with the
horrors many face once in Sinai. Smugglers may at that point suddenly
demand more money – sometimes up to $20,000, ten times the initial
sum – and then the real abuses follow.
The reports have detailed the beatings, the starvation, the gangrapes. I
have met dozens of refugee women desperate to access abortions
before their communities and families learn of the pregnancies that
result. Sometimes, prolonged captivity in Sinai means advanced
pregnancy upon arrival in Israel, and consequently, no possibility for
abortion. In at least one case reported by +972, the inability to come to
terms with the cultural stigma embodied by such a birth resulted in the
murder of a new Eritrean mother and her baby, at the hands of her
husband, who then committed suicide.
The more sophisticated the smuggling networks become, the more brutal
they seem to be. For some time, refugees have been reporting to human
rights organizations that their captors have threatened to seize their
organs should they fail to raise a wildly unfeasible sum. But before this
week, no definitive proof of organ theft had surfaced.
On Thursday, as part of the network’s “Freedom Project,” CNN reported
on what appears to be a growing organ trade emerging from the refugee
smuggling industry in Sinai. The report shows chilling pictures of what
Hamdy Al-Azazy, head of Egyptian rights NGO New Generation
Foundation, says are the bodies of African refugees bearing distinct
scars. The report quotes a forensic specialist who says that the photos
strongly indicate organ removal – most commonly of corneas, livers and
kidneys. Watch the report here (but beware of graphic content):
According to Sigal Rozen of the Hotline for Migrant Workers, the report is
incorrect when it states that the bodies belong to refugees who could not
pay their own ransom. ”Two years of intensive testimony collection has
led me to the conclusion that there’s no connection – young pretty
women are often held for months after they pay, only because they want
to continue to rape them, and many young men whose ransom had been
paid disappear without contacting their loved ones – it is entirely possible
that the reason being that they are young and suitable for organ [theft],”
she said.
Another report on Egypt’s Channel 25 depicts the corpses in Sinai being
dug up, bearing testimony to the removal of organs. Please note that this
clip is far more graphic than CNN’s; watch at your own risk.
The Egyptian government has been known to take a hands-off approach
to Sinai, and the situation in the peninsula is said to be even more
lawless since Hosni Mubarak was removed from power earlier this year.
When asked last year about the Sinai camps, an Egyptian official said,
“You are talking about illegal immigrants. Thus, when engaged in illegal
activity, bad things can happen.” Israel, for its part, has done little beyond
holding a Knesset meeting or two to discuss the atrocities taking place in
its backyard. Victims who reach Israel can at best enjoy the medical and
psychological assistance of NGOs, and at worst face prolonged
detention, and ultimately, deportation. For now, even as things get
increasingly bloody, the community of states has done little to join the
media and human rights advocates in making any noise.
For additional original analysis and breaking news, visit +972
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