Israeli charged over abuse of African migrants

An Israeli man has been charged with participation in a human trafficking ring that captured and tortured African migrants in Egypt’s neighbouring Sinai desert.

Charges released yesterday said the accused – a Bedouin from the Negev desert in southern Israel – extorted tens of thousands of dollars from Eritrean and Sudanese migrants in Israel whose relatives were being held by smugglers in Sinai.

The charge sheet said that over the past nine months, the suspect collected ransoms of up to £25,000 each for dozens of captives held by nomadic Bedouin tribesmen in the Sinai.

The Bedouin were supposed to smuggle them over the border into Israel. According to the indictment, the traffickers threatened to kill the captives or remove their kidneys for sale if their relatives in Israel didn’t pay up.

Some 50,000 Africans have entered Israel in recent years, fleeing conflict and poverty in search of safety and jobs in the relatively prosperous Jewish state. They need the smugglers’ help to navigate the rugged Sinai desert, reach Israel’s border and sneak across.