The Sinai desert is a hub for people trafficking. Many of the refugees from sub-Saharan Africa who get smuggled through here get tortured and blackmailed in the process.
Bedouin gangs – instead of trafficking the refugees straight into Israel — often hold them captive, torture them and force relatives into paying ransoms for their release.
The ordeal is exceptionally bad for women. Many of them are raped by the traffickers and some become pregnant.
Tegisti who finally made it to Israel shared her story,she said she was raped by traffickers several times during the trip. She told me she wanted to talk about her suffering to help prevent others from going through the same.
“They are cruel people,” she said as tears ran down her cheeks. “They are criminal people and they don’t have the human sense like us. I screamed that I am virgin but they just don’t care at all about you.”
Tegisti says the first time she was raped the traffickers selected her and another female refugee from a larger group and took them away saying they would have to make coffee for the smugglers. There would be several similar incidents during her treacherous trek across the Sinai.
When Tegisti finally made it to Israel she found out she was pregnant and decided to have an abortion.
“I would suffer all my life,” she said. “I would have a son or a daughter without a father. That’s why I decided not to have the baby.”
