afrol News, 9 February - Anti-slavery groups fear that a 20-year-old escaped slave may be returned to his "masters" in northern Mauritania. The escaped slave is held incommunicado at a military camp and has left behind eleven enslaved family members with his "masters". The case again sheds light on Mauritanian authorities' failure to enforce the ban on slavery.

The World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT) today issued an "urgent" alert regarding the fate of Mr Matalla, an escaped slave who had lived in the city of Zouérate, northern Mauritania.

According to the information OMCT has received, a man named Mr Matalla, who had fled from slavery having received death threats, was taken into custody by the Mauritanian military on 18 January. On orders from the local governor, the military placed Mr Matalla in the custody of the local police on 20 January. He was handed over to the brigade commander at Bir Mogreïn, a town in the Sahara desert dominated by the military.

SOS Slaves, a member of the OMCT network, had been able to contact Mr Matalla on 18 January. Fearing that he will be returned to his masters, Mr Matalla has told the soldiers who were detaining him that "I would rather die in your presence so I can be properly buried, which my masters will not do," according to SOS Slaves.

Lately, the anti-slavery group has not been able to get in contact with Mr Matalla and the group has now expressed grave concerns for his "physical and psychological integrity" due to the possibility that he might be returned to slavery under his "masters" from the Rgueïbatt tribe.

- Of particular note is the fact that these "masters" have threatened to kill him if should flee like his older brother had done some 2-3 years ago, the OMCT appeal says. "All attempts to make contact with the local authorities concerning Mr Matalla's whereabouts and condition have failed thus far."

Mr Matalla in Zouérate left behind a family of eleven, including his mother, three sisters, and seven brothers, who are all believed to "still be in the most basic form of slavery."

According to information Mr Matalla gave to SOS Slaves, none of the children in his family have a known father, and they have received no education during their exposure to forced labour and exploitation. Mr Matalla himself had served his "masters" by shepherding goats, and he fled from them after they threatened his life.

- OMCT is seriously concerned for the physical and psychological integrity of Matalla, given that his whereabouts remain unknown and that he runs a grave risk of being returned to his "masters" who have previously threatened to kill him should he escape, the human rights network said today.

Mauritania has been regularly criticised for not enforcing its legislation banning slavery. Nevertheless, OMCT today welcomed the recent adoption of a law in Mauritania that prohibits trafficking in persons, but said it remained "gravely concerned by the ongoing existence of slavery in Mauritania and calls upon the authorities to take all necessary measures to ensure that it is abolished."

SOS Slaves in a recent statement demanded that the administrative and military authorities of Mauritania intervene so that Mr "Matalla and his family can gain their liberty and benefit from assistance to reintegrate into society and exercise their civic rights." There has been no response from Mauritanian authorities.

OMCT today urged human rights defenders to write to the authorities in Mauritania urging them to "take all necessary measures to locate and guarantee the physical and psychological integrity of Mr Matalla and that of the members of his family."

By staff writers

© afrol News

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