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Citizens Fleeing Eritrea because of Poverty and Forced Labor

Fleeing EritreaSince 2012, one in every 50 Eritreans (nearly twice the ratio of Syrians fleeing from civil war) has sought asylum in Europe. According to the U.N., 5,000 Eritrean men and boys are leaving their families and fleeing Eritrea each month.

High Rates of Fleeing

The U.N. estimates that 400 thousand Eritreans, or nine percent of the population, have fled in recent years. According to the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), nearly one-quarter of the 132 thousand migrants arriving in Italy between January and September of 2015 were Eritreans.

Poverty in Eritrea is extreme. The CIA World Factbook reports the nation’s GDP purchasing power as $8.7 billion, ranking Eritrea 162nd in the world. Unemployment in the country is estimated at just 8.6%, but the poverty rate is estimated at 50%. More specific numbers are nearly impossible to acquire due to Eritrea’s secretive nature.

Reasons for Leaving

Why are people fleeing Eritrea? In June 2015, the UNHCR released a 500-page report detailing the systematic, widespread and gross human rights violations going on in Eritrea, violations that have created a climate of fear in which dissent is stifled. The report found that a large proportion of the population was being subjected to forced labor and imprisonment.

According to the report, the people of Eritrea are not ruled by law, but by fear. The Eritrean government denied repeated requests by the commission for information and access to the country. To gain insight into the situation, the commission conducted 550 confidential interviews with Eritrean witnesses in eight countries and received an additional 160 written submissions.

Conscription for 18 months is required of each Eritrean adult but is often extended indefinitely and carried out for years in harsh and inhumane conditions. Thousands of conscripts are subjected to forced labor that effectively abuses, exploits and enslaves them.

According to the UNHCR’s report, women conscripts are at extreme risk for sexual violence during national service. All sectors of the economy rely on forced service, and all Eritreans are likely to be subject to it at some point during their lives. The commission concluded that, “forced labor in this context is a practice similar to slavery in its effects and, as such, is prohibited under international human rights law.”

Mandatory conscription has not remedied poverty in Eretria. Instead, it has exacerbated it. Commission chair Sheila B. Keethrauth urged commitment from the international community to end the climate of fear in Eritrea.

“Rule by fear — fear of indefinite conscription, of arbitrary and incommunicado detention, of torture and other human rights violations — must end,” said Keethrauth.

– Aaron Parr

Photo: Flickr

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10 Facts About Eritrean Refugees: Effaced and Displaced

Eritrean RefugeesThere are approximately 321,000 Eritrean refugees living in Europe and thousands more reside in other areas around the world.

These refugees fled a country that operates on a system of invasive state control and extreme repression that consistently borders on human rights abuse. In a nation with few freedoms, it is not hard to understand why so many citizens have fled to other countries.

Here are 10 facts about Eritrean Refugees and the actions done to assist them:

  1. Eritrea is one of the world’s quickest-emptying nations with almost five thousand Eritreans leaving the country every month.
  2. There are approximately half a million Eritrean refugees residing in Ethiopia and Sudan, while Eritrea holds a population of only 6 million.
  3. The Eritrean refugees who have money are willing to pay up to $5,000 per person to flee the country according to The Guardian.
  4. Eritrean refugees are the third largest group that crosses the Mediterranean Sea by way of Libya to Italy.
  5. Many Eritreans settle in Ethiopia, a neighboring country that holds the largest number of refugees in Africa, according to Al Jazeera. Refugees in Ethiopia live in government-sanctioned camps that provide very little.
  6. There are over 40,000 Eritrean and Sudanese refugees living in Sweden and Norway, destinations many Eritrean refugees hope to reach, according to The Guardian.
  7. Some nations, including Israel, have deported Eritrean refugees to countries in Africa such as Rwanda, where their travel documents are confiscated and they are smuggled elsewhere.
  8. The conscription national service policy, where boys are required to serve in the national service at age 17 and can be required to stay for the majority of their lives, is a key reason citizens flee Eritrea according to The Guardian.
  9. Refugees are fleeing a country with no freedom of speech, religion, movement or political opposition. Citizens can be held in detention without charge or trial and many are tortured during their stay.
  10. The EU attempted to stop the flow of Eritrean refugees into Europe by giving development aid to Eritrea according to The Guardian; however, assisting those who have already escaped Eritrea and putting pressure on the Eritrean government to end abusive policies would be better use of the aid.

Reducing the number of Eritreans fleeing to the EU does not address the root of the cause. Refugees will continue to take unprecedented risks in their journey across the Mediterranean until political change occurs in Eritrea.

The above 10 facts about Eritrean Refugees are by no means exhaustive but provide insight to the current conditions of these displaced individuals.

The U.N. Commission of Inquiry on Human Rights calls Eritrea “an institution where slavery-like practices are routine,” exposing the corruption and abuses that cause so many refugees to be displaced. One can only hope that the Eritreans’ time as refugees will be limited and future change for their country is on the horizon.

– Amanda Panella
Photo: Flickr

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Eritrean Refugees Abused in the Middle East

Eritrean Refugees
Refugees are fleeing Sub-Saharan Africa’s poverty in search for job opportunities, political freedoms and basic human rights. The sad reality of this situation is many of these opportunities are few and far in-between, and their lives rarely improve above the dire situation they were leaving.

Eritrea is one of the nations many have been fleeing from. Isayais Aferwerki, the despotic dictator who’s ruled Eritrea since its 1994 independence from Ethiopia, is a main reason. The nation is home to rampant poverty, media repression and political oppression. Adult-aged males are regularly conscripted into military service with no definite end-date, and the President was quoted as saying the nation was not ready for free elections for at least another 20-30 years. The constitution has been suspended and Eritrea remains single-party state, with opposition political groups regularly rounded up and jailed.

Around 200,000 Eritreans have left the nation in search of freedom, but it has resulted in a human rights crisis. Eritreans regularly flee to Sudan, Egypt and Israel only to be subjected to discrimination, and in some cases, have fallen into human trafficking. Israel has prevented refugees from entering by building a fence, which has resulted in asylum seekers slowing “to a trickle” of their original amount.

Human Rights Watch published a report detailing the crisis in early February stating that “refugees are commonly kidnapped, and their families extorted to pay for their release.” Those who manage to avoid kidnapping are usually deported back. HRW has focused on the culpability of Egyptian and Sudanese officials in the kidnapping crisis. The allegation has been made that corrupt officials have been benefiting financially from the situation and are actively cooperating with kidnappers.

Physicians for Human Rights released a damning report on the conditions many Eritrean refugees face on the trek to asylum. The imprisonment rate of those interviewed was around 59%, while 52% claimed they were violently abused at some point on their way to the Sinai Peninsula. Slave camps are prevalent in Egypt. In El-Arish, there are camps reported throughout the area, populated with “slave traders” who “demand ransoms” for the release of African refugees.

The report detailed that many of these refugees were tricked through “promises of being led to Israel” but rather held against their will, while other’s detailed “severe abuse.” Twenty percent of those interviewed also described witnessing murders. Israel can be considered culpable in this situation. With the building of the fence, the average of 1,500 refugees gaining asylum each month decreased to only 25 entering “between January and April 2013.”

Israel has also mounted a political campaign to defend their actions, decrying the Eritrean refugees as a “threat to Israeli society.” The public response to these accusations helped allow the government to enact stricter immigration legislation, allowing for slave traders to flourish in the wake.

The Anti-Infiltration Law was passed in January of 2012 by the Israeli Legislature of Knesset, and allowed the Israeli Government to detain any people found crossing the border. The law even prevents many of these refugees from receiving a speedy trail, allowing the Israeli state to detain undocumented immigrants for “minimum of three years.” If a undocumented immigrant is from a state considered belligerent to Israel, such as Sudan, they can be “detained indefinitely.”

It was a crushing defeat for many Africans in search of a new life free of oppression. With no options, many still flee, but they may not find the salvation they are in search of.

– Joseph Abay

Sources: Turkish Weekly, US State Department, Haaretz, The Voice, Sudan Tribune, DW, Physicians for Human Rights, Haaretz