About 3,000 Eritreans a month flee the dictatorship of
Isaias Afwerki and the
one-party state of
Eritrea where indefinite military service and forced labor is required of all Eritreans from the age of 18 to 55. Eritrea is considered one of the most surveilled countries in the world with no independent media and no public internet service. After Europe closed its borders in 2006, the only option for Eritreans fleeing their country towards Israel is across the Sinai desert in Egypt. It has been reported that people of the
Rashaida Tribe, Eritreans, and Sudanese soldiers are all involved in the trafficking of Eritreans to Israel. Many Eritreans pay traffickers to transport them to the Israeli border but are instead held hostage by those they paid and sold to gangs in Sinai where they are tortured and held for ransom. These strategically organized kidnapping are known as the
refugee kidnappings in Sinai. ==Festival screenings==