ABSTRACT ACCORDING TO REPORT: 

“Since 2010, traffickers in eastern Sudan have kidnapped at least hundreds of Eritrean refugees fleeing widespread human rights abuses and destitution in their country. They sell them to Egyptian traffickers who rape, burn, and mutilate them in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula, often holding a mobile phone to their victims so their relatives abroad can hear their screams and pay at least hundreds of dollars in ransom. Based on interviews with 37 survivors of trafficking and torture in Sinai, “I Wanted to Lie Down and Die” documents the abuses and how in some cases, Sudanese and Egyptian security forces collude in these crimes by handing victims over to traffickers in police stations, turning a blind eye at checkpoints, and returning escaped victims to traffickers. When Egyptian border police intercept released trafficking victims, they routinely deny them medical assistance, protection, and access to the UN refugee agency. Instead they charge survivors with immigration offenses and detain them for months in inhumane and degrading conditions in Sinai’s police stations. Very limited prosecution of the traffickers and a failure to prosecute colluding security official’s means both Sudan and Egypt are in breach of their obligations under national and international anti-trafficking laws, international human rights law, and the United Nations Convention Against Torture. To end these horrific abuses, Human Rights Watch calls on both governments to identify and prosecute traffickers and Sudanese and Egyptian officials colluding with them. It also calls on Egypt to protect, not prosecute, released trafficking victims.”