Eritrea to Israel: Dying to cross the border | Unreported World

the Sinai desert in Egypt is the bridge between Africa and Israel thousands of refugees are traveling over 900 miles to cross it trying to break into Israel it's a very long route and a lot of people die along the way the refugees are fleeing Eritrea one of the most repressive countries in the world this young man was at school when he was forced to join the army he says he was badly tortured there they know if they're captured they'll be sent back to torture and death in Eritrea and some of the Bedouin gangs who smuggled them and now exploiting them Kidani is talking to a man he says as a hostage-taker who's kidnapped over 20 Eritrean we were entering a secret world where people are risking their lives trying to find sanctuary in Israel we arrived in Cairo the capital of Egypt just over a month after the revolution that toppled the regime of Hosni Mubarak there were still signs of the unrest Egypt's in a state of transition at the moment following the revolution the militaries in control and the police aren't fully back on the streets which means it's the perfect time for criminals to take advantage of the situation we headed northeast into the Sinai desert it's inhabited by better in Arabs for years they've smuggled Raffi's and Kurds to Palestinian groups in Israel and Gaza but we'd heard reports they were now smuggling a new commodity people our destination was a location deep inside the desert we've finally been given the go-ahead to visit a safe house where some migrants are being kept it's such secretive well organized operation we had to meet whole networks of smugglers before we got permission to come here we were met by one of the people smugglers Salaam Salaam o Mita thanks for meeting us he said everyone here was fleeing Eritrea the country in East Africa nearly a thousand miles away he's leading me into the house now it's an incredible thing you can see the sleeping conditions here they're sleeping in rows they're all covering their faces we're being told to come into this room and there's still more of them and this is just one group who've been smuggled through Egypt there were a hundred our trains crammed into four small rooms intermediate no that's right right and how many women now in this room I can tell one this is the song eat the migrants were terrified of arrest by Egyptian border guards the Mubarak regime regularly sent migrants back to Eritrea flouting UN rules forbidding deportation to countries that torture people are very scared to talk to us here we asked everybody and they said they can't talk on camera they're scared of reprisals their families are still in Eritrea but these two men here they said they'll talk to us anonymously Omar and Joseph had been in the hands of smugglers for over a month they'd paid $2,000 each for their passage explain to me why everyone is so fearful no whooshing yes huh there are limits to Javier how good Island those are had a leash on her neck why are you all wanting to leave Eritrea no not Saguna Ireland has son-of-a-bitch Gaddafi militant that they elected [Music] Politiken no not admit it 21 year-old Joseph told us the eritrean regime forcibly conscripted men and women this young man was at school when he was forced to join the army he says he was badly tortured there he managed to escape to Sudan where he wasn't welcome and that's why his dream now is to make it to Israel a predominantly Christian country Eritrea spent decades at war with its neighbors and it now has one of the largest armies in Africa conscription can be indefinite and deserters can be tortured or killed [Music] Oscar Allah their opponent nah I'm not hard on him hey Dad yo man hey it's Sahara my God if you need another Maya Shana you know who you assume down unless I have another Shana Sudan I written up a girl gorillas in Haiti Omar and josephs group had been here for over a week waiting for the next stage of the journey they weren't only risking arrest and deportation back to Eritrea Egyptian border guards have shot and killed scores of migrants as they've tried to cross the border they're not allowed out of this compound here because it's too dangerous there are lookouts as well checking to make sure that nobody comes near here in the yard we met Sammy who agreed to talk to us openly he said he had no family left in Eritrea like many of the men and women in the holding house he had also deserted the army he'd been forced to serve for over six years Sammy says any Eritrean can be forced to join the army from the ages of 15 to 55 and that includes women you're only meant to serve for one and a half years but he says in reality you can serve much more torture starvation and slave labor a common place Sammy had been so desperate to get out he'd left with nothing he's been in the Sinai desert for six months and that's because he hasn't paid up for the whole journey and he's been trying to get the money together to pay the full amount so then he can be taken to Israel Sammy how are you earning the money to get out of here he was working for the smugglers as a translator he didn't know how long it would take to pay off his debt [Music] Sammy and the others are fleeing a country where arbitrary arrest is common and where tens of thousands languish and secret underground jails Eritrea produces more refugees than almost any other country in the world nearly 2 thousand people escape every month looking at a map you can really appreciate how remarkable this journey the migrants are making is this is the border with Sudan which is hundreds of miles south of here just to reach this point once they reach this point where smuggled all the way through the eastern part of the country through the east and desert here they have to cross over the Suez Canal the Gulf of Suez and then they've got another journey through the desert and Sinai finally they make it to the border with Israel for the refugees Israel promises safety and prosperity while its Arab neighbors are in turmoil Israel has one of the fastest growing economies in the world the Bedouin smugglers are the only way of getting there and one of them agreed to tell us how it was done we've just arrived at a clearing in the middle of the desert were about an hour's drive from the nearest town and we've been told that our meeting is up ahead I can see a tent and a fire a blue stone a man is the mastermind of a people smuggling ring transporting migrants into Israel he's been doing it for three years when Africans are smuggled how does it work how do they get through the whole country up to the desert here you know he told me it was a sophisticated operation run by Bedouins in three different countries a Bedouin tribe in Sudan picks up people and then they're transported through the country using vehicles trucks four by fours there are three different stages and lots of tribes are involved how do you avoid getting caught with a car full of illegal immigrants and refugees the migrants are hidden under piles of goods such as sugar cane in the Bedouins bribe when necessary clear but he explained that one smuggler can transport up to four thousand migrants to Israel every two years how much money will that make you remarkable you said the trade can make you a rich man you can understand why there are so many people involved in smuggling here it's big bucks a Brucella mine says that the head of a smuggling ring can earn as much as thirty thousand dollars a month [Music] later that night I was driven deeper into the desert and less than a mile away from the Israeli border my guys brought us to somewhere called a holding house this is where people are kept before they make a run for the border this was the final part of the operation the refugees were about to embark on one of the riskiest parts of the journey we've been told that a group of about 30 to 50 era trains will be driven across the border in the next 48 hours they don't want us to follow they say it's too dangerous but our smuggler guide is in the car that's going to transport them here Salam the driver was planning how to avoid being shot at by Egyptian border guards he'll be driving about 25 era trains in the back of this pickup truck I don't know how 25 people would be able to fit in this tiny space he says that he's going to cover them with tarpaulin and then he doesn't know how long the journey will take he says that they have to take the safest route that could be half an hour to four hours depending what the safest route is and he says they wait to get a phone call that the coast is clear that's when they they make a dash for it some of the eretrians had already arrived in the holding house again most were too scared to talk to us on camera apart from the one who'd managed to get his family to safety today was 25 years old and had deserted the army after five years when anima hability any very moment a generic assassin Caribbean with an e with a lumen terrific Ursula in case a local Oh Sarah Fiat ash figure finis be move sherry was they did were not even at Hamlin nominee to be able to fit to forbid you mami an irritation - Angelica - areum livers of them - what are you hoping to find in Israel Jonnie anniversary Salama Sarah L wished L shui come on establish we're at a shame a shadow feeling today had left his wife and baby in a refugee camp in Sudan do you miss her with you why did you leave your wife behind to make this journey ready when I was 20 all she marentina drama shantaram Olivia nano Marathi what an emeriti V and you know had a Sarah not think that the terrible Arabian Janna Stalin Athenian I shall not get Anna from when I could was silver Salama I still a shiny new idea what do you know about crossing over the border into Israel mean if Dolan the doughnut an aluminum Sheila's him you could interrogate a subdued - way she and you could say blossom inverter again if he must be moved to other muffin as beautiful Eric beer a banana the rooted si was going to take could get him killed most of the 260 kilometers border is open but Egyptian guards have been accused of using a shoot to kill policy against anyone found trying to cross into Israel illegally our guides are showing us the main smuggling route we've just driven off road and we're driving across sergeant 86 people have reportedly been killed crossing the border human rights groups claimed the number is much higher the Egyptian authorities deny using the shoot to kill policy but say lethal force is justified to stop illegal activity we're right beside the border now who can see it right there in front of us and this is how close we are that is an israeli village and that is what they're making their way to we crossed over into israel here the migrants have another dangerous journey to make if captured within 50 kilometers of the border they can be handed over to the Egyptian authorities and can be sent back to Eritrea this policy known as hot returns is controversial in Israel even among its own troops this soldier was ordered to return Eritrean refugees he says that a group of 31 refugees were caught in the morning and then the evening this gives you a sense of the scale of how many people are passing illegally through here they caught another 13 refugees he says that the refugees were then brought to this tree they were loaded into three trucks and that's when he understood that they were going to be returned to Egypt and he said he said to his platoon commander I can't do this Camila Cabello comes our vehicle came with us the soldier told us he still faces the threat of court-martial Israeli human rights groups are now challenging the policy in the courts we received a call from today say he'd been lucky the Israeli security forces had arrested him rather than returning him to the Egyptian authorities we've just found out that today is being held in this prison but we can't get access to him I'm just relieved that he's safe he made it across alive refugees like to Dessay who avoid being hot returned a detained for several weeks while their cases are reviewed many are given temporary visas to stay we had a North to the city of Tel Aviv this is his rails business capital and the goal for the refugees hedonic Isaac is a 25 year old Erik Tran who was smuggled over four years ago and now lives here legally he said many of the 20,000 eretrians who made it to Israel were now safe but destitute there are a lot of migrants sitting on the corners they simply expert at that and we are hearing the nice part because there is no work there is no life there they don't have anything to do and then they just come here and they spend their time sitting together as a team Kitana had managed to get a job working nights as a baker he now rented a tiny shared room in a flat with 16 other refugees so two of you sleep in here yeah he told me he'd wanted to be a journalist but independent media is not allowed in Eritrea he'd got caught trying to leave the country they tortured us you know they're very criminals you know they are very crew Creole people you put in a military prison yeah and you were tortured I also sure but I managed to skip kudani was badly beaten and electrocuted how long were you in the prison for four months and one day we just managed escape at night and they were just sprung out and just there he's done in the border guard is the stallion we just ran she should lot of fires at us but fortunately we were not hit and we just managed it escaped in his spare time katana helps new arrivals he told me that in recent months had been a disturbing new development some Bedouins smuggling gangs had started to hold refugees for ransom extorting cash from relatives who already lived abroad men had been killed and women raped Madonna's disposed to a charity run health center he says that it's the only place where refugees migrants can get health care in the past year this clinic has been treating era trans who say they've been abused at the hands of their kidnappers the manager wrote Katz said they see 700 patients a month what are you finding with people who arrived here about a year ago we've started to find that over 50% of them reported some kind of physical abuse that varies it could be some of them were burned in in sand some of them were we know about punching weeping feasts people have been chained to one another that's very common many of them report that they've been held together and chained to one another for days and weeks also sexual assault of course so how many women do you suspect a being raped roughly 16 percent of the women interviewed reports being sexually assaulted we assume that it's at least twice that number if not more [Music] at the moment there's evidence that nearly 200 eretrians are being held hostage in the Sinai desert for ransom Kidani had received a tip-off about one such group he'd been given the number of a middleman who was known to be negotiating on behalf of the kidnappers [Music] another man will appear to be one of the kidnappers then came on the line in two layer of blue skin all right like you know Logan come on Dennis can hustle I understand that they will kill them if they didn't get the man because they have been taken for a several mundus I think nobody is able to help them what are you gonna do now we will tell that the hill commit here I don't know but I don't know how to do it because this is beyond our capacity we spoke to a relative of one of the hostages he's already sent seven thousand dollars he can't afford the full amount all 23 people in this group including three women are still being held kid on a said many era trans were being kidnapped he introduced me to sion who'd arrived three months ago after being held for ransom can you tell me what happened Serna seven-second ethnology since Aristotle Durga - agraja and they're naturally nervous another good word mala - shame so I thought about the name [ __ ] romance the shame good so I thought about that sure I did I'm not their opposition didn't do photo I was the hazard is a hunter HR issue mala - who's unfamiliar Evan her family friends and family had to sell everything they own to pay her ransom that over $12,000 which is a very huge amount in Eritrea would you make the same journey again to get out of Eritrea good a good car had nothing dude what's up Mira this just goes to show you how bad the situation in Eritrea is and how desperate people are to leave because despite everything she's been through Seon has just told us that she would do it all again to get out of our trail Ezreal has appealed to the Egyptian authorities to investigate the kidnappings so far no cases have been pursued Israel is now building an electronic fence to keep African migrants out yet era trans will continue to seek refuge here and in Europe from a regime that tortures and kills its own people if you want to find out more about eretrians being smuggled to Israel or any other issue covered by unreported world please visit our website at channel 4 comm slash unreported world [Music] thanks for watching click the logo to subscribe for more award-winning documentaries from the unreported world team we upload videos every Sunday keeping you up to date with content from all over the world

Channel: Unreported World

Views: 218,798

Rating: 4.7285662 out of 5

Keywords: Unreported world, unreported world documentary, israel, israel border, israel border security, israel eritrea, eritrea, migrants, israel migrants, africa, crossing the border, ramita navai, egypt, israel egypt border, israel egypt border wall, israel egypt border crossing, israel egypt border fence, african migrants, israel africa news, sinai desert, eritrea news, migrant smugglers, migrant smuggling, border crossing, netanyahu, Isaias Afwerki

Id: rABjfyyH8c4

Length: 23min 30sec (1410 seconds)

Published: Sun Mar 10 2019