To H. E. Hosni Mubarak The President of Arab Republic of Egypt, Abadan Palace Cairo, Egypt Via fax Date: 16/12/2010

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1 To H. E. Hosni Mubarak The President of Arab Republic of Egypt, Abadan Palace Cairo, Egypt Via fax Date: 16/12/2010 Our reference no: GA20/2010HM Concerns: On the plight of the Eritrean refugees being held hostages by the human traffickers inside Egypt s territory Sinai desert. Dear Excellency Hosni Mubarak, The President of the Arab Republic of Egypt We congratulate you and your party The National Democratic Party for overwhelming victory in the parliamentary election took place last time in your country. But, our main purpose to write this letter is not about the election victory rather about the Eritrean refugees who are being held hostages in the Sinai Desert and exposed to killing and mistreatment by the Sinai Desert traffickers. We are a group of Eritrean who are advocates and defenders of human and democratic rights of all Eritrean inside and outside Eritrea. Our organization "The Eritrean Research and Documentation Center in the Netherlands has specially been campaigning for and supporting Eritrean who have been fleeing the country because of the gross violation of their human rights in their own country of Eritrea. As we are sure you are aware, large numbers of Eritrean are fleeing the country on a daily basis to the Ethiopia, Sudan, Egypt and various other places usually by taking a great risk to their lives. We on behave, Eritrean residing all over the world, are obliged to write this letter to your Excellency to take an urgent action to this inhumane act. We are sure that you are well aware of the situation in Eritrea at the present time. The country is hijacked by few who were supposed to have rescued it and the Eritrean people are, yet again, forced to leave the country they fought and paid dearly for. The people of Egypt have always stood by the Eritrean people at their time of need and were instrumental to their victory. We are hopeful and confident that the Egyptian 1

2 government will always safeguard and protect that Eritrean who has fled from tyranny. We believe you are aware on the current human rights situation in Eritrea and on the recent UNHCR position paper entitled Return of Rejected Asylum Seekers to Eritrea January UNHCR in their recent communication recommended that states refrain from all forced returns of rejected asylum seekers to Eritrea and urged states to grant them complementary forms of protection. Therefore, our youth and people who are fleeing from, the tentacles of the PFDJ repressive regime need your protection but not the other way round, further abuse, killing and ill treatment in the hands of the Sinai Desert human traffickers. Around 250 Eritrean nationals have been held for months on the outskirts of a town in Sinai in purpose-built containers. Their captors are demanding payment of up to US$8,000 per person before releasing them, and are subjecting them to cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment. They are bound by chains around their ankles, have been deprived of adequate food, are given salty water to drink, and have been tortured using extreme methods, including electric shocks, to force friends and families abroad to make these payments. The women in the group, who have been separated from the rest, are particularly vulnerable to severe abuse. Over the weekend the situation of these refugees appears to have deteriorated markedly. The kidnappers have shot and killed two Eritreans and wounded three more. We therefore make the following urgent appeal to your Excellency: Tackle organized crime by rescuing these hostages, bringing their captors to justice, and permanently closing these torture camps. we are also respectfully calling on your government to immediately stop, all hostage taking, forced repatriation, ill treatment and killings of our fellow citizens by your border guards, police, and give unlimited and we request immediate access be given to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees in Egypt to assess the real threat facing Eritrean asylum seekers. As you are well aware, as signatory of the 1951 UN Convention against torture your government is obligated to respect the rights of all refugees. We look forward to hearing back from you, as we look forward to the time when we Eritrean people can freely exercise the freedom and civil liberty to which we are entitled. 2

3 Yours Sincerely, Mr.Negasi Tsegai [Campaign organizer] Eritrea s Research and Documentation Center. Stortemelk 117, Postcode 2401 BW Alphen aan den Rijn the Nederlands Tell: eritreanrdc@gmail.com Copy to: Mr. Antonio Guterres United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Case Postale 2500 CH Genève 2 Dépôt SUISSE GUTERRES@unhcr.org H.E. Dr. Jean PING Chairperson of the African Union Commission African Union Headquarters P.O. Box 3243 Roosevelt Street W21K19, Addis Ababa Fax :( 251) Ethiopia chairperson@africa-union.org Andrea M. Bertone, PhD Director HumanTrafficking.org (Project of the Academy for Educational Development) Washington, DC bertone.andrea@gmail.com His Holiness, Pope Benedict XVI PP. M via Del Pellegrino Citta Del Vaticano benedictxvi@vatican.va Mr. Uri Rosenthal Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands 3

4 DCM/SO-CDC, 20061, 2500 EB Den Haag Egypt Embassy in Netherland Badhuisweg 92, 2587 CL The Hague 4

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