Egypt: Abuse of asylum-seekers in Sinai must stop, say activists

Egyptian activists are calling on the government to take action to save African asylum-seekers from what they call the 'systematic torture' they are being subjected to by their Bedouin captors in the Sinai peninsula who demand thousands of dollars in ransom. 'The government says it does not have information [on this],' said Magda Botrous, a violence and physical safety specialist at the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights, a local NGO. 'But the problem is that the government doesn't try to get the information,' she told IRIN.