Every hour, or every 20 minutes they would come and hit us. "You are lucky if you can rest for one hour. The men and women all bore clear scars from the torture they endured and many of them had horrific stories to tell. Fourteen Eritreans were staying there, all of whom had escaped the compound of a torture camp only a week earlier. Sheikh Mohammed took me to the safe house. We bring the refugees here and provide them with food, water and clothing, and get them doctors." In the past, if an African escaped the camp, the criminals were able to catch them again, but now the traffickers don't dare enter the people's lands. "I have about 200 supporters in this region," Mohammed said. Mohammed has set up a safe house where African refugees who escape the torture camps are brought and given protection from the human traffickers. "What the traffickers are doing is against the will of God," Mohammed told me when I recently visited him in Al Mehdia. Mohammed is a Salafist - a radical form of Islam - but he is also deeply humanitarian in his beliefs. Sheikh Mohammed Abu Billal, a powerful chief from the Sawarka tribe, is leading the charge. In the past, some of t hose who could not pay have had vital organs removed, which the Bedouin gangs then sold to corrupt doctors.īut now, a band of Bedouin tribal chiefs have started to fight back against the people smugglers. The traffickers demand between $35,000 and $60,000 for the release of a captive. They endure torture and rape, and if they cannot find someone to pay the ransom they are often killed.Īl Mehdia is dotted with torture camps run by Bedouin gangs. Coming mostly from Sudan and Eritrea, many fall into the clutches of brutal human traffickers who hold them captive and demand huge ransoms. Now we revisit the remote region to see Bedouins tackling the trafficking on their doorstep.Īl Mehdia is an area that thrives on smuggling, including a human cargo of African refugees who are trying to make it to Israel in the hope of finding a better life there. Last year CNN visited the region as part of the Freedom Project spotlighting the depths that the traffickers have sunk.
Tankers full of fuel still make their way to smuggling tunnels leading to Gaza in broad daylight and marijuana fields are cultivated with elaborate irrigation systems in the middle of the desert. There is no police force and a military offensive launched recently after a deadly string of militant attacks on Egyptian border guards, has not stopped the illicit trade that flourishes in this area. The area of Al Mehdia near Egypt's border with Israel is a lawless place even by Northern Sinai's standards. I’m not pleased with IMVU asking for information and still denying my help request.By Frederik Pleitgen and Mohammed Fadel Fahmy, CNN
They denied my request and suggested we call the help number, I did and they simply told me to send in a clear photo of my ID and card, I informed them I already did and they still have yet to take my child’s account off hold, I’m not sure how to fix this and have already allowed her to spend as much as she pleased on building this account. We placed in a case and I gave them my card and my ID information as asked. But after having it for almost a full year they put her account on hold for suspicious activity. I closely monitor her social media account and she always comes to me before purchasing anything over 20$, here recently my daughter has been very interested in this game. Her real name cannot be placed on the account, my daughter is allowed access to a debit card that I set up in my name to use as she pleases, my daughter works very hard for the money so I don’t ask where she spends it. My child whom is 16 has an account on IMVU under one condition.