CAIRO: Eighty-three Egyptian immigrants, two Indians and one Sudanese, who were sent back to Egypt on Friday after being held for almost 10 days, insist they were taken hostage by a Syrian gang despite denials from both Egyptian and Syrian authorities.
According to several local newspapers, Egyptian Ambassador Mahmoud Ouf denied reports, initiated mostly by family members of the immigrants, stating that the group was held hostage by a Syrian gang which demanded ransom money from their relatives in exchange for their safe return.
The victims said they were held by a Syrian gang for 55 days in Humms, until the Syrian authorities raided the place just 10 minutes after the gang fled.
The police then captured the immigrants and transferred them to the immigration prison on June 6 until Egyptian authorities began negotiations with Syrian authorities to bring the immigrants back to Egypt.
According to Al-Masry Al-Youm, some of the immigrants had overheard a phone conversation between Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and the Egyptian ambassador in Damascus where Mubarak had ordered the ambassador to facilitate the return of the immigrants and provide them with healthcare and food.
“The Syrian police didn’t catch the gang who held us hostage, and they will never be caught, Ahmed Mohamed Ali Saad, from Beni Khalid village in Minya, one of the returned immigrants, told The Daily Star Egypt.
Saad added that the gang consisted of eight people – the same ones who had convinced him to enter Syria illegally to find his way to Italy or Turkey where he was promised a better job than the one he had in Jordan.
The gang had asked the immigrants for extra money in addition to the money they had already paid them to be transported from Jordan to Syria. Saad’s family had sent over $1,650 as ransom money, but never heard from the gang members again.
