"All the attention is on Libya, but the new migrant route is the one that passes from Sudan to Egypt, with Alexandria as the port of departure to Europe," Eritrean activist Alganesh Fessaha explains in an interview with ANSA. "Since 2015, four boats have already sunk on this route, with hundreds of people aboard, and a fifth boat with another 350 has gone missing.” Fessaha has been living in Italy for 40 years. She is the founder and president of Gandhi Charity, an NGO that works for disadvantaged women and children in Africa and Europe with a special focus on refugees in Eritrean camps. She has just returned to Milan from her most recent mission in Egypt, where she helped set free about a hundred people who had been imprisoned as irregular migrants. Human corridors Fessaha and her NGO are especially active in refugee camps in Ethiopia, working together with other organisations such as Italy's Community of Sant'Egidio and the Waldensian Church. They are aiming to recreate the human corridor model that's already been set up in Italy for Syrian refugees and was recently launched in France as well. Although Ethiopia isn't the destination of choice for those who spend money to risk their lives to reach Europe, Fessaha says that in the refugee camps where her NGO operates (Shimeiba and Mai Aini), refugees initially get a tent and then eventually find a way to build a home. However, the lack of work pushes especially young people to leave once again. "That's why we're trying to build a technical school and train a cooperative that will give them the possibility to work here," she says. "Ethiopia is a poor country, but despite this it welcomes 800,000 refugees, including Somalis, Sudanese, and Eritreans," Fessaha continues. However, Somalis, Sudanese and Eritreans continue to flee from war and hardship in their countries to Europe. According to the activist, the numbers are increasing of those who leave by bus to reach the border between Sudan and Egypt, from where they take the train to Aswan for Cairo. From there they wait, often in rented accommodations, for human traffickers who will help them depart from Alexandria headed for Europe. Victims of torture, violence "They leave in groups of 10 to 20 people on small boats, then they reach a larger boat headed for Italy," she tells ANSA. The cost for the crossing is still relatively low, ranging between 1,000 to 1,500 dollars, but the numbers of both refugees and traffickers are destined to increase. "We hope it doesn't happen like in Libya, where traffickers from the Sinai moved when that route closed," she adds. Fessaha knows the business of trafficking quite well, as she has saved about 750 people from them in recent years. She says refugees often become victims of torture, violence and blackmail and sometimes even of the horrors of organ trafficking. For her efforts and her commitment, a tree will be planted in her honor in the Garden of the Righteous inside the Italian Embassy in Tunis on March 22. It is part of an initiative by the Italian Embassy in cooperation with the Italian Institute of Culture in Tunis and Milan's Gariwo Association and its Forest of the Righteous (ww.gariwo.net). Fessaha has received many awards over the past years, including one from Italian President Sergio Mattarella. "I don't consider these awards my own but those of all refugees, and particularly those who have died in recent years in the Sinai, in the desert and in the Mediterranean," she concludes.  ANSA with infomigrants