EXTREME MAKE-OVER: Detained in Egypt

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There are several accounts of torture, rape and murder of migrants at the hand of smugglers and traffickers in Egypt’s Sinai desert. A few migrants make it safely into Israel. A big majority, however, end up in Egypt’s detention centres.

Migrants are crammed into damp, overcrowded prisons, with little or no access to basic health care services. Here, they spend many months, awaiting repatriation or deportation.

The Internationl Organztion for Migratn (IOM) conducted an extensive health assessment on migrants in 16 detention centres across three border towns in Egypt: Sinai, Aswan and Luxor.

More than 1,000 migrants from Eritrea, Ethiopia, and Sudan were given medical assistance, food, and clothes.

The assessment was designed to identify urgent health needs, and to strengthen Egypt’s referral system for injured migrants in detention centres.

Guided by the findings from the assessment, IOM has started conducting public health training for police officers and border officials. It also intends to build the capacity of hospitals to address the health care needs of detained migrants.


ORIGINAL PIECE:

Migrants transiting through Egypt are often vulnerable; over the past few months, IOM has obtained considerable insight into the exploitation and abuse that has been inflicted upon migrants who are smuggled and trafficked from northern Ethiopia and Sudan to Israel, via Egypt. Along this route (and, in particular, in the Sinai Peninsula), migrants have been held ‘hostage’ by their smugglers, who demand up to an extra USD 40,000 to take them across the Israeli border, while subjecting them to forced labor, sexual exploitation and torture. Others are injured whilst trying to cross Egypt’s southern or eastern borders and/or apprehended and transferred to ill-equipped police stations and detention centers – where they often spend protracted periods awaiting repatriation or deportation. An extensive health assessment has been conducted of most detention centers in Egypt currently holding migrants for illegal border crossing looking at the health needs of apprehended migrants and at their current access to health care. A total of 16 police stations have been visited – most are located in Sinai and Aswan/Luxor area. All detainees visited (over 1000 detainees mostly from Eritrea and some from Sudan and Ethiopia) were provided with Non Food Items, food, and medical assessments and assistance when required. The assessment identified urgent health needs, including those of injured migrants shot at the border as well as urgent health needs in detention centers to address cases of TB, childhood diarrhea, and pregnant women. The assessment identified serious concerns not only at the level of the detention facilities but also at the level of the healthcare facilities serving apprehended migrants. As well as continuing the above mentioned activities, plans are underway to start conducting public health training for police officers and border officials as well as to strengthen the referral mechanism for injured migrants to the appropriate health care facility and to build the capacity of hospitals to address the health needs of apprehended migrants.

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Region: Egypt, North Africa
Theme(s): Migration, Health

The author is a health communications consultant. Follow her on Twitter [@msanyuosire] & keep tabs on tips she shares with health communications officers by "liking" her facebook page [Mary-Sanyu Osire].