SOS Sinai

An initiative of the association Desert Rose e.V.

“SOS Sinai” is a Desert Rose e. V initiative. The name is supposed to point out the misery the people in the Sinai are stuck in and who are tortured in so called torture camps in the most brutal way. The victims are mostly Eritrean and Sudanese refugees who are captured by Bedouins on the way to Israel or are kidnapped from refugee camps in Ethiopia and Sudan and taken to the Sinai Peninsula. The smuggler’s goal is to blackmail the families of the hostages and demand ransom by torturing the victims. If this is not possible, they remove the victims’ organs, presumably to sell them. The following figures point out the extent of the tragedy on the Egyptian Peninsula:

• According to recent reports, 25,000 to 30,000 African refugees were kidnapped in 2009.
• 25% – 50 % of them have died.
• The ransom demands are on average about 30,000 USD per person.
• Over 600 million USD have supposedly been paid
• At present thousands of refugees are captured in torture camps

 

With the initiative „SOS Sinai“ Desert Rose e.V. wants to achieve three main goals

1 On the long run, we want to achieve the release of the hostages and put a stop to human and organ trafficking in the Sinai.
 
2 To achieve this, we want to draw attention to the existence of the torture camps in the Sinai and the people suffering there as well as putting pressure on politicians. This is why public relations and lobbying activities – regardless of political views – are very important to us. This includes networking of NGOs, activists, and the people affected.
 
3 Our public relations work should not only explain the situation to the public, it should give motivation to help directly and collect donations for the survivors of torture camps. These donations make it possible to initiate specific projects in cooperation with our local partners (e. g. ASSAF) and support the projects of torture victims. (e. g. the women’s refuge „Kuchinate“).
 

The projects we support aim to help the victims of human trafficking build a future for themselves. In other words we want to „help this people to help themselves“, regardless of political views, nationality or religion.