Sudanese Mutasim Qamrawi, 22, shows his scars from four months he was held in captivity by smugglers in Egypt's Sinai desert at a shelter in Tel Aviv, Israel, Thursday, Feb. 16, 2012. Some 50,000 Africans have entered Israel in recent years, fleeing conflict and poverty in search of safety and opportunity in the relatively prosperous Jewish state. A growing number of African migrants say they were captured, held hostage and tortured by Egyptian smugglers hired to sneak them into Israel. (AP Photo)What are the chances of the UN Human Rights Council condemning Egypt and conducting full investigation?
TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — The young man from Sudan holds his arms close to his sides, as if still at the mercy of smugglers who he says poured hot melted plastic over his back, whipped him with wires and beat him with sticks as he lay face down and naked.
He pulls up his shirt to reveal scars that crisscross his arms, back and stomach.
Mutasim Qamrawi is among a growing number of African migrants reporting they were tortured in Egypt’s Sinai desert by smugglers despite promises to sneak them into Israel, where they hoped to find freedom and a decent job. The smugglers then extorted the migrants’ families for more money.
“You sit in your own grave until you can get the money. That is the only way to leave — or death,” said Qamrawi, 22, who was held in captivity for four months.
Human rights advocates say the situation is worsening, because smugglers are using harsher torture methods and demanding more money — as much as $40,000.
They cite accounts by Africans who have arrived in Israel, and from those still in captivity who make frantic phone calls. Those stories were echoed in Associated Press interviews with Africans in captivity and those released.
Qamrawi said smugglers kept him and some 60 other men in a hut, shackled by their legs. Each day, about a dozen guards burst into the room, making them lie down naked, one at a time. Then the torture began. Qamrawi said he saw 16 men die under torture, screaming for help, because they took too long to gather the ransom money.
Other Africans say smugglers gang-raped migrants, electrocuted them, kept them in the desert sun, deprived them of food, threatened to remove their organs, shackled them together and left them unwashed.
They include a 27-year-old Eritrean who reached Israel in February. He limps on his deformed legs, cannot close his swollen hands and wonders whether he will ever be healthy enough to work again.
Smugglers beat him with pipes and electric prods and smeared melting plastic on him. Women in his group were taken outside to be raped. Six men died, their bodies left to rot beside him for days at a time.
“Every time I close my eyes, I think about all the people I left behind in the (underground) room. They always come to mind,” said the Eritrean, who provided only his first name, Touldeh, fearing his captors could still harm him.
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