"Horn of Africa refugees in the Sinai region"
About the UNHCR
The purpose of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) is to provide international protection to refugees under the auspices of the United Nations and to seek permanent solutions to the problem of refugees in cooperation with governments and private organisations.
The High Commissioner is advised by the Executive Committee, currently holding 87 members with a demonstrated interest in and devotion to the solution of refugee problems.
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Background
In the last six years there has been an considerable influx of asylum seekers from the Horn of Africa into Egypt and Israel. Feeder asylum seeker states are primarily Sudan and Eritrea, with smaller numbers of Somalians, Ethiopian (Non-Jewish+Jewish) and some West African nationals such as Nigerians. This has caused a number of problems within Israeli society which has resulted in severe discrimination and mistreatment of refugees, motivated by the fear of the dilution of Jewish state identity. In turn the Israeli government's refugee policy has become increasingly hostile towards refugees and has made a number of policy changes in relation to those who qualify for refugee status and residency and access to work, education and accommodation.
The second element to this situation, is the journey in which most refugees make to Israel , in particular those who journey from the Horn of Africa and cross the Sinai region. Bedouin traffickers have began intercepting and holding refugees at ransom and have found it a lucrative trade.
In the poverty stricken region, the influx of refugees has caused this trade to escalate and develop into the rape and torture of refugees as leverage to increase the ransom. The kidnappers do this by contacting refugees' family abroad and making them listen to their relative as they are tortured.
Eritrean and Sudanese diaspora on the whole are first generation migrants and are not wealthy, some have fundraised, re-mortgaged or even sold their homes to ensure their relative's safety. Those who are unable to pay the ransom, their organs (usually kidneys) are unwillingly removed and sold. Some die from this procedure or die on the rest of the journey crossing the dessert to Israel. Both the Israeli and Egyptian government have refused to act and see it as a problem which is not their own, as do the refugee feeder states.
The final element, is the discrimination and violence African refugees face in Israel and other receiver states such as France, Greece, Italy, Spain, Egypt and other north African states.
This committee will seek to achieve a resolution which seeks to mitigate the criminal activity, address the clear breach of human rights and assign responsibility for these areas.
Photo: Asmaa Waguih/Reuters