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FIELD OBSERVATIONS ON MIGRATION FROM THE EGYPTIAN COUNTRYSIDE TO EUROPE Is it of any justice to prosecute the victims and release the criminals?

The migration phenomenon has increased in 2008. The LCHR reports have monitored more than 100 trips to Italy that have resulted into the death of about 500 Egyptians who have drowned while escaping the police or during the migration process. International statistics indicate that the number of Egyptians who have successfully entered European countries during the past 10 years are about 460 thousand people who include 90 thousand living illegally in Italy.
The migration phenomenon has also increased after the implementation of the landlord and tenant law. Land cultivation used to provide the farmer with a good income that could fill their basic requirements and their families especially that the State (government) used to support the agricultural sector and small-scale farmers in various forms.
After the implementation of the landlord and tenant law and the expulsion of hundreds of thousands of small farmers, unemployment has increased and small farmers turned to be seasonal workers, which have led to the deterioration of their conditions and their families, and forced them to migrate from their villages to cities and abroad.
The erosion of about one million and a half acres of agricultural land during the past three agriculture decades has lead to higher farmland prices and rents, for more than twenty times than it was before the implementation of the land law, in addition to exacerbating the problems of water, irrigation, fertilizer and seeds, which contributed greatly to the abandonment of farmers and their families to the process of agriculture.
Land and real estate trading has led to raising the price of a land carat in some villages to 200 thousand pounds, in addition to restricting the distribution of the reclaimed and desert land to people of influence, in addition to adopting the land modern mechanization over the use of labor, which have resulted in more unemployment in the countryside.
The failure of vocational education in introducing young people trained to work has also contributed in the direction of businessmen, investors and the private sector to import trained foreign workers from abroad despite the increase in unemployment in Egypt, especially in the textile sector.
Policies of the free-market have led to the dependence of the Egyptian economy on certain goods imported for cheap prices, such as cotton, and consequently deteriorated conditions of some strategic crops which through it tens of thousands of agricultural workers were employed.
Small-scale farmers do not keep pace with the developments of the free market under the trend of the government to economic openness without providing adequate support to small farmers, manufacturers and craftsmen, especially in the field of marketing and agricultural guiding In addition to the weakness and the absence of cooperatives in playing their role in the development of the conditions of farmers.
LCHR has received several complaints during the months November, December and January from the Behira, Daqahleya, Kafr El Sheikh, Fayoum, Monofeya and Sharqeya governorates stating that their migrating sons have been illegally detained, as being charged of facilitating illegal migration to other people although court orders have been issued for their release. and here sre some case studies shown as follows:
Model case (1) from Kafr El-Sheikh:
Name: Saber Ibrahim Abdullah Shami
Village: Borg Moghiezel - Metobas - Kafr El-Sheikh
Age: 23 years old
Qualification: Technical Diploma in 2005
Family: Saber lives in the house with his father, mother, ywo brothers and two sisters, and he is the oldest of his brothers.
Saber applies to the administration of recruitment after acquiring his diploma to perform his military service, where the administration of recruitment postponed his service for five years, then he tried to look for suitable job in the village but he hasn't found any. He then went to look for work in the city but he didn't find any work their either.
After a period of looking for work, suddenly the idea of traveling abroad to look for a job opportunity came up, especially as his village is within the main centers for youth travel. So he went to the management and administration body at the Ministry of Defense and obtained a permission to travel and then obtained a marine passport in addition to the work permit from the Ministry of Interior. Then he started his first trip on a fishing boat. After spending a period of work near the Libyan coast Sudden malfunction (breakdown) occurred in the boat' engine, and he stayed and his colleagues a period of time to repair the engine. Then asked the owner of the boat to return to Egypt to visit their relatives until the engine was repaired. Here was the surprise when the boat owner refused to give the workers any pay for the period they had spent on the boat working.
Saber was unable to return to the village without money, so he moved to work in Libya to compensate for the period he spent working on the boat without pay. Then he moved to work in Italy and worked for a period of three months. And then he went to France for five months. Then he moved to the State of Ireland and stayed there for a period of four months looking for a job. After all that period he was homesick, so he made a reservation in one of the airline offices and he returned to Egypt in April 2007. Then he cut off any connection with travel and travelers. He abandoned work on the boat after the bitter experience which he has been through and he started to work in multiple jobs in the village and surrounding villages.
However surprised by being arrested in 1/10/2008 at two o'clock in the morning by policemen from Metobas' police station. After spending the night there he was taken to Al Montazah police station in Alexandria where he and one other guy from the same village were being charged of facilitating employment abroad illegally.
He stood before Al Montazah's prosecution. Then he was released on bail of two hundred pounds. After paying it, he was surprised by Al Montazh police putting him into custody unlawfully and issuing decisions to detain him, and he was deported to Wadi El Natroun's prison, and so far, he hasn't been released.
The LCHR has made a complaint number 19902 on 23/11/2008 to the Attorney General's Office demanding his release, It also lodged a complaint to the Ministry of the Interior to cancel the arrest decision and release him, also his family has lodged many complaints to all stakeholders but he has not been released until today.
Model case (2) from Fayoum
Name: Khaled Salah Jibril
The village: Naton village
Age: 23 years old
Qualifications: Diploma of Commerce in 2003
Occupation: was unsuccessful in obtaining a job opportunity neither in the village nor at the coty.
So, he started to think of traveling to Italy Khaled said in 2004 I traveled to Libya to work there as a regular worker. I spent there about 3 months, and then I met a Libyan broker. He offered me the travel issue, and we were about 13 individuals and we said to him "We don't have any money to travel" and he said: you are not going to pay any money until you actually get to Italy"
We went with him, and we stayed for two days in a storage, then we boarded the boat, and there was a boat sailing by our side to get us delivered to a bigger boat. Then the boat, which was beside ours suddenly sank. When our boat owner knew about that, he said to keep moving, and the boat continued to move in until we were delivered to a big boat. He returned to the sunken boat and he found some people alive, so he brought them to us and the people who drowned were left to the fish. We stayed for 48 hours till we reached Malta's shores. And on the border of the Italian shores, we awaited the Italian boats to come to take us to Italy, but they didn't come because of the wind and the high waves, so we waited for 8 days with no food and on the boat there was only water, when the boats did not come, the sailor returned to Libya, and he took us back to the housing. We phoned the village in order to know who had been lost. Two days later, we came to the village, and we informed people about their sons. Before we go to Egypt, we had told the Libyan police, so they searched for them and already got some of the bodies two days later, the bodies were recovered from the water and have been sent to Egypt.
Model case (3)
Name: Hasan Sadiq Hassan El Basas
Village: Besat Karim El-Din - Sherbin - Dakahleya
Age: 37 years old
Qualifications: Commerce Diploma in 1993
Occupation: working on a tractor owned by his father. His family consists of 21 individuals, among them are his 8 brothers and his 62 year old mother.
His wife Wafaa Zain El Din Sayed says: The story is that Hassan went frequently to the mayor's house in order to ask about his brother Mohamed whom we have heard that he has been drowned among the young people who were traveling to Italy when their boat sank. He also used to go to his colleagues from time to time in order to ask about his brother Mohamed to reassure his mother.
One day we came across people who came to the house and said that they want Hassan to go to the Mayor's house to file a complaint for his brother Mohamed being missing. Indeed, Hassan went to the house of the mayor and there he found an officer of the public funds receiving complaints and he said to Hassan "Hassan you are going to come with us to the station just for ten minutes to complete the complaint about your brother and you will be coming back soon" Indeed, Hassan went there with him but was surprised that the officer has charged him of being among the defendants who inflict employment abroad illegally. We knew that the officer did this because there are two fugitives who haven't been arrested. We followed up the case and all charges were cleared in court and we have a certificate from the prosecution of Cherbin to prove this, but public funds officials brought an arrest warrant and refused to release Hassan. The Strange and funny thing is that the one who was sentenced to 6 months, has spent his time and got out, but my husband so far spent more than a year and we do not know what has happened to him? We have sent a call for help to Dr. Mufid Shehab, then he converted the complaint to Interior Minister Habib El-Adely. So far, no one responded to us, our living has become difficult and we borrowed money from neighbors and people of charity to afford a visit to him. Besides that, we don't know how to cover the expenses of his sisters and his mother who live in the house because the tractor is broken down and no one can operate it but Hassan.
The LCHR has made a complaint number 21471 to the Attorney General's Office demanding to release him and compensate his family because of the abuse of the Interior Ministry. It also lodged a complaint to the Minister of the Interior to cancel the arrest decision and release him because there were no excuses for it, beside he was cleared by the court. Nevertheless, Hassan is still in custody until today.
Model case No. (4)
Name: Wael Mohamed Helal
Village: Meet Sharaf - Dikernes - Dakahleya
Qualifications: The BA of Social Service
He wasn't lucky to get a job because of the unemployment situation, he couldn't find anything but the idea of migration out of the country came up but legal migration, so he tried to get the papers to get a license from an import and export office to facilitate the travel process, then he discovered the difficulty of legal migration because of the difficulty of obtaining a visa because its cost is up to about 100 thousand pounds for him the only possible way was illegal immigration
Weal says "after I graduated and got a Bachelor of Social Work I spent a period of time looking for a job opportunity, but I didn't got lucky so I started to think of immigration to work abroad, especially after what I have heard about the large amounts of money collected by the young people working in the European countries I got a license of import and export office to facilitate my travel legally, but the process got difficult because of the high cost of the visa price. So, it was agreed between me and one of the brokers named Reda Moghazi that he would help me to travel by sea I have paid the amount agreed upon which was a 35 thousand pounds 25 thousand pounds has been paid and the remaining ten thousand pounds by the time I arrive to take them in. When I arrive in Italy. Indeed, we took the bus to Libya and the broker stored us in a street called July 11 in a big yard like a large prison we were more than 225 individuals from all over Egypt They all want to migrate to Europe, the Surprise was when we found people have been in this place for over more than three months the yard was a large place and all the doors and windows were made of iron and it was far from population And we've had difficult days inside that yard or prison We obtained only one meal a day. On some days we stay without food for a few more days and the longest period we spent without food was 7 days and we lived only on water it was not allowed for any one of us to leave outside the yard To the extent that there were some people fall and die from hunger and the Libyan force them and dumped them in the water without any mercy. After more than a month in this sad situation, we were surprised by two Libyan men who were working as Guards to secure the way come to us and say, Come quickly fled police is coming They opened all the doors and windows so that we can escape, and many people who were with us were got arrested, but a few Could escape and I was one of them. After that we were brought together again by the cell phones in another place called "al-kohms" After a month of waiting, the broker said to us "I am going to make a Carné (identification card) for each one of you as workers in a cleaning company and by using them you can enter the port as cleaning workers then you can escape to the boat at night. So, we said "as you say" After several days he came to us and told us that he has canceled the idea because it would coast him a lot of money and that we have no choice, but to wait for the boat and if there was any one who couldn't wait he (the broker) couldn't pay him his money back now, so we had to wait for even more than a month in this situation, while the situation of young people is getting worse and worse.
They brought plastic containers of gasoline near the shore we have buried them underground. At that time we felt that time of migration has come so we have renewed hope. After several days of bringing the plastic containers the brokers gathered us as a line crawling on the ground so that no one can see us and any one out of the line or any one makes any Involuntary movement or even a sound was being shot and dumped in the water in order to intimidate others
On the other hand, we found a group of Libyans have been beating some young people with Screws in a brutal way for no reason After reaching to water they asked us to walk in the water for a quarter of an hour until water reaches the person's neck Then they took us on a rubber boat and Moving us for another half an hour Then we climbed up from the rubber boat to the boat.
This situation has extended two thirty in the morning till nine in the morning after that the boat started to move with more than 400 young men on board although the length of the was about 15 meters. Then we were surprised by the Transmitter failure and we were facing the oil field "Algory" then We lost control of the boat because there were no captain The broker choose one of the young people who was close to him to lead the boat, then we were surprised that there was a hole in the bottom of the boat where water entered from, and we stayed for four days grappling with death we were exchanging drain water from the bottom when the water were increased we threw all that is heavy on the boat plastic containers of petrol, luggage and even food later, after that the engine was broke down and we tried to run it (make it operate) with no use then the boat started to sink from the rear portion carrying the engine now the rear portion was broken in two pieces and the boat sank
And every young man started looking for any plastic containers "Jrkin" or a piece of wood or floats. It also has been with us more than ten girls on the boat they wanted to travel to Italy they have been subjected to all kinds of violations by brokers. The brokers were using these girls to spend time with them and the girls were forced to make concessions to brokers to get their satisfaction. Some of those girls had children with them between ten years. After the sinking of the boat we were being tossed by waves and every one on the boat has drowned except me and 7 young men we woke up and found ourselves in a hospital in Tunis, after rescuing us. After we got better Tunisian police took us inside a trailer And near the Libyan border they have dropped us and They told us that this was Libya We had to walk in the mountain more than two days day and night for more than 300 km on foot until we reached "zawarah" area The operations' area, and We contacted the brokers again then one of them came to us and told us that there is a trip after a week and the number had reached 30 people, and they took a rubber, and we sailed for more than 9 hours then the weather changed a young man named Fawzy was driving the boat, but he was unable to continue the way and we sailed back to " Zawarah" Then we met the broker again and he said that there will be a boat in Morocco sails in four days, and broker made an agreement with a captain of a ship, and we traveled from the Libyan coast to Morocco there was one of the Libyan We and then we stayed in Morocco for ten days then we were shipped into a rubber boat and we sailed for several hours We were surprised by helicopter approaching us and tell us to follow it was a Spanish Red Cross. The members of the Spanish Red Cross put us into a provisional seizure for 4 days in a place like a hospital then they deported us to Libya by air and obliged the Libyan authorities to raise the value of the ticket to the Red Cross and they put us into custody in alfalah's prison in Tripoli and who paid for the ticket was deported to Egypt and who doesn’t pay stay in Libyan custody. I contacted the broker and he came and paid for ticket, and he interceded for us, and then they let us go, then he told me that the only way was to travel by air, so he got a passport for me as a Libyan and he reserved me a ticket and I flew to Italy. We got to Milan in Italy I woke up from illusion and there I saw things are stranger than fiction. There were no jobs or work as some people think Very few who could get jobs no one could have a job, but the old ones who spent a period of time there but those who don't have a residency license stay there expelled and most of the time afraid of the Italian police and he remains trapped in housing
About the housing, there were more than 30 people staying in one apartment and often occur disputes among them over money, food or residing. And the Youngman can't find any job opportunity but to sell cigarettes, lemon or Artichoke and he was haunted most of the time from the police because they sell without a license and Egyptian women are engaged in begging. There were Egyptian and not Egyptian women work in prostitution and nothing is prohibited. It is Possible any person or any girl to ask anyone who has a residence to spend the night at his place and the Purpose might be to gave an illicit relationship, so our young men there are in grave danger for exercising sex with anyone even if they have to practice in the street The risk of AIDS facing Egyptians working abroad. There are young men and women find nothing but drug dealing there are Brazilian young people working Turans There was Egyptians did that too. There were some people who introduced new religions and were gathering the Arab people in churches. Then they were bargaining The Egyptians for residence, marriage or money. There were some young people couldn't find any thing to do but to exercise robbery in the streets of Italy to the extent that there were two young Egyptians accused of sexually abusing a child and stealing his cell phone One of them was called Ahmed and the other I can't remember the exact name, they have been brought to trial in 10/2007 and they were sentenced to 17 years each I do not know whether this accusation is true or not, I mean have they really committed this disgraceful act, or were innocent but I heard the subject.
About newspapers and magazines there the Italian government is distributing free Italian newspapers to the Italian citizens, or you can find it in the street or subway stations or on the pavements the only one that had a specific price was Egyptian newspapers and it wasn't delivered to us only after two months of publication and it coasted 5 euros for the copy. As for me I have worked in many works. Some of the young people who have a residence license use some tricks for example; there was a young man who rents a flat and then rents it to the Egyptian for 1500 euros a month and this would be his job; organization of housing and circumvention, then he rents an apartments on behalf of his wife as soon as he sends an invitation for a visit to her, she travels to him and as soon as she gets the residency license he gets a flat for her there at first when I went there I stayed more than six months working just one day a month, For expenses if You worked for five days a month it would cover the expenses of the whole month of food, drink, clothing, housing and so on. I worked on a vehicle selling vegetables for 5 euros a day and I spent it on the same day, and I didn't save anything, the strange thing was what I saw of Egyptians As there was a market of the Forged documents in Egypt to export there; anyone wants a complete military service it was delivered to him there for money Or wants a forged driver's license it was being forged in Egypt and were delivered there. There was not much of the Italian Muslim as there were no mosques, while there were too many churches and the Christian distributed food within the churches for homeless people. Of course, the Egyptians were the first and the most beneficiaries. Then I worked in a chicken farm and worked again in the plastering and then worked in the a timber store for a mnofeyan man called "Adel Rajeh" he exploited Egyptians who didn't have a residency license to work for lower wages, and he increased working hours to three times then he didn't give the worker his full wages at the end of the month he gave the worker part of his wage and seized the rest, and the Worker didn't dare to utter because he did not have a residency license was sure that the worker could not do anything In short, this person was absorbing the blood of Egyptians ( using them the worst way he could) There were some foreigners doing the same thing.
Back to the difficulty of living in Italy's streets and alleys, Italy was the only country which was being called Europe's garbage collector Italy is the only country where you can find all denominations and all nationalities, such as Albanians, Brazilians, black Americans, Moroccans, and Tunisians their overriding consideration is the drug trade, and the Moroccans and Tunisians girls worked in prostitution, and theft for Albanians it is easy to rent a person to kill another person for a bottle of wine given to him. There were the hippies loitering in the streets and sleeping under bridges and in parks they benefit from everything, killings are permitted at any time and for the most insignificant reasons and theft in the street and mafia a very difficult Life. After I spent a year and a half in Italy I discovered that I can not save anything I met one of the Egyptians there named Hassan, he was saidi he was working there as a driver of one of the cranes and he lived there for more than 13 years and was married to a French woman and he told me that there was work in France so I procure 100 euros which was the amount of money obtained by the train driver or the ticket agent from the person for smuggled from Italy to France or vice versa, I said to him even here bribery was widespread between the Italians and the French.
The way in which the driver the person smuggling when he receives the 100 euros the distance between Italy and France is 9 hours the smuggler asks the person – after obtaining the money to stay in the bathroom for 9 hours and when the policeman come up to the train the driver tells him that every thing is okay. The important that I moved to France after borrowing 100 euros, as every time I needed money I got money from my colleagues who worked there, then I've contacted my family at home to payback my colleagues at their home in Egypt. I Was moved to France and landed there as guest of my saidi friend in an apartment and he introduced me to his French wife and she welcomed me and was a good host then my friend Hassan had tried to call many Egyptians working there in France in order to find me an opportunity to work there. After about 15 days it was the time for my friend Hassan to go to his work in Italy he couldn't do anything but to ask me to choose between to stay here in France or to go back with him to Italy, I should mention here that France is much more difficult than Italy for the Egyptian to stay in without a residence license I was cautious for the movement during that period which make it hard to continue there so I decided to return to Italy again, and the only way was returning by the same way " smuggling to be honest when I saw my friend Hassan working and moving freely I envied him, and I wished to do so by marrying an Italian or a French woman, but even that can happen only after the Italian or French gets 10 to 15 thousands of euros which equals more than 150 thousand Egyptian pounds Of course, this amount is difficult for me. After returning to Italy I was despaired and frustrated. So I phoned my family and asked them to send me money so I can return to Egypt Money has already been sent from Egypt to Italy and I returned to the homeland.
The LCHR has made a complaint number 20760 in 17/12/2008 to the Attorney General's Office demanding to release the detainee.
At the end, the LCHR demands all Egyptian officials with the Attorney General and the Minister of the Interior on top to stop implementing the emergency law especially against the poor people, and release the detainees in Borg Meghzal, Balteem and the villages located on the Mediterranean costs, in addition to punishing the corrupted governmental employees, boat owners and brokers who represent the real criminals. And be obligated to implement the law and respect court orders to guarantee citizens rights to personal safety, freedom and decent living.
LCHR also calls all civil society organizations and members of both the people's and consultative councils to form a national committee to treat the reasons behind the illegal immigration phenomenon and provide real solutions and alternatives before the youths, and pressure the Egyptian officials to stop torturing and detaining fishermen in these areas and punish the real criminals who stand behind the scenes.
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