Kassala preparing for anti-trafficking act

Eritrean refugees at the Shagarab camp at Kassala The Guardian

The government of Kassala state has handed the Federal Ministry of Justice an anti-trafficking act against human trafficking provides a range of punishments that reached to the death penalty, revealing that arrangements are being made with the Eritrean government to facilitate the movement of trade and to reduce the smuggling operations.

The Minister of Health in Kassala state, Abdullah Mohammed Daraf affirmed in a press statement that the problem of human trafficking has not reached the precarious stages yet, however he said that as a phenomenon, the state government has been preparing for dealing with it, pointing out that all the security services including the security, police and armed forces, were mobilized and deployed on the border, a move he said has helped reduce the phenomenon.

 The minister said that the state prepared a legislation act, passed by the parliament in the state, for combating human trafficking crimes, adding that it is now in with the Federal Ministry of Justice for constitutional harmonization, calling on the federal government to support the combating process through funding, providing means of communication and increasing troops.

However, many observers experts on trafficking see the phenomenon from a different perspectives, saying that it represents an alarming problem, calling on the relevant authorities to do more to address the problem and secure Sudan from being a source country for human trafficking.

Some other observers criticized the authorities for failure to effectively deal with human trafficking in Kassala, calling on the government to cooperate with the relevant international bodies and to accelerate efforts in pace with the international anti-trafficking standards and to demonstrate strong commitment to combating this scourge through law enforcement.

Background of the phenomenon:

Thousands of refugees, asylum seekers, migrants and Sudanese nationals rely on smugglers to transport them into, through and out of the east of Sudan every year. The UN Refugees Agency (UNHCR) estimates that approximately 3,000 persons enter the East of Sudan from Eritrea every month, of who an average of 2,000 seek asylum in Shagarab camps; most of these new arrivals move on to Khartoum or beyond within a short time of arrival. A sophisticated network set up by smugglers enables movement of people efficiently from Eritrea through the East of Sudan to Khartoum, Egypt, Israel and beyond. In recent months, UNHCR and IOM have received an increasing number of reports of migrants, refugees and asylum seekers en route who have been subjected to kidnapping, extortion, and severe sexual and physical violence by criminal groups involved in the smuggling of persons.  The UNHCR says that victims of these crimes tell horrendous stories of what they went through whilst being abducted.

Over the last few months, the Sudanese public opinion has become apprehensive of the troubles coming to the country from Eritrea. The government enjoys a strong relation with the Eritrean regime whose intelligence officers roam Sudanese territories to hunt down people believed to be its opposition or foes.  Eritrean refugees in Sudan feel threatened and live in continuous terror from the Eritrean operatives.

In September of this year, Sudanese security officers foiled a contraband convoy heading towards Eritrea. That was the first known action the Sudanese officers took against contraband heading to Eritrea in the last ten-years while across the border in Eritrea, the towns of Arbaataasher and Teletaasher are known contraband centers run by an Eritro-Sudanese smuggling cartels.

There is a general sense that the Eritrean regime is coming apart and the Sudanese officials have decided to hedge their bets.

On October 30, the Sudanese security authorities in Kassala State freed 17 Eritrean detainees from human trafficking gangs.

The raid resulted in the arrest of a gang member from the network while the rest fled.

The seventeen refugees aged 14 and 15 years, were found in a deplorable conditions. They were bound with chains inside a tent in a remote area known as Hemesayb, west of Kassala.

At least one of the human traffickers exchanged fire with security officers and was arrested while the rest of the gang fled in two four-wheel drive vehicles.

Similarly, on the next day, October 31, AlIntibaha Arabic daily reported police forces from the town of Gedaref freed four people in Al Fashga. Though the news stated the victims hail from a neighboring country, it is likely that they are either Eritreans or Ethiopians. The authorities arrested the members of a human trafficking network whom it believed were planning to sell the victims to clients outside the Sudanese border.

Last April, a convoy carrying the former governor of eastern state of Al-Qadarif, Karam Allah Abbas, across the shared borders with Ethiopia on Sunday was attacked by suspected members of the Ethiopian gang known as Shifta.

The attack took place as the convoy of the then governor, Karam Allah Abbas, was crossing Um Dabalo area in Abu Sanda Sudanese locality bordering Ethiopia. Abbas was on his way to the neighboring Amhara region of Ethiopia for a meeting with its governor when he stopped in Um Dabalo after spotting an Ethiopian farmer working in the area.