UN requests world not to return Eritrean refugees fearing their imprisonment, torture or death
Omer Redi
January 08, 2008
According to the reports the dictatorial regime in Eritrea, located in east Africa, sees those who leave the country as defectors. If they return, they face imprisonment, torture or even death. The families of those who flee are also at risk.
In response to UN’s appeal for civilized contemplations pertaining to Eritrean refugees across the world the Israeli Interior Minister announced that one hundred Eritrean refuges in Israel will receive six months’ work permits while it said has decided to give them all such permits, HAARETZ.com, an Israeli media reported today (http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/942485.html).
All Eritrean refugees to receive work permits
One hundred refugees from Eritrea received work permits from the Interior Ministry yesterday. They are the first of almost 1,000 refugees who will be given such permits in the coming days.
The permits are being awarded following a special decision last week by Interior Minister Meir Sheetrit and the head of the Population Administration, Yaakov Ganot.
"The decision stems from humanitarian considerations in light of the United Nations' request that the Eritreans not be returned to their country, due to severe infractions of human rights there," said Yossi Edelstein, director of the Population Administration's department of aliens.
The Interior Ministry views the six-month work permit as an interim solution.
The first to receive the permits were refugees living in shelters in south Tel Aviv, to allow them to move out and make room for those now housed in Ketziot Prison, Edelstein said.
The dictatorial regime in Eritrea, located in east Africa, sees those who leave the country as defectors. If they return, they face imprisonment, torture or even death. The families of those who flee are also at risk.
A woman now residing in Ketziot Prison said two weeks ago that after her husband fled, the Eritrean police demanded that she give him up and threatened that if she did not, they would take her instead. She ran away that night, leaving her two-year-old daughter in her mother's care. "I don't know if my husband is alive or dead and my mother does not know whether I am alive. I worry about my daughter," she said.
Her fears are not groundless. Another refugee, a teacher who tried to halt the forced draft in the school where he taught, said that after he fled, his wife was arrested with their baby and jailed for two weeks.
Some of the refugees in Ketziot, located in the northern Negev, were released to work on local moshavim, where they were exploited and lived under terrible conditions. However, they did not dare run away. "We are prepared to do anything so as not to be deported," said an Eritrean man who worked on a Negev moshav.
The man said he fled Eritrea after spending six months undergoing torture, including confinement in a small metal box, in a military prison for having expressed a personal opinion during a political rally in his army unit. "When they took me out of the box they made me run," he said. "I ran until I fainted and they put me back in the box." He added that his hands and feet were frequently tied behind him, and he was forced to stand on his hands until he collapsed, after which he was beaten.
After hearing about Sheetrit's decision yesterday, he said: "I am no longer afraid. Now I feel protected." Tomorrow, he and his friends will go to the Population Administration in Be'er Sheva to receive their permits.
And what will happen after the six months are up? "I don't know. At least now we can decide for ourselves what to do," he said.
Previously Eritrean opposition websites reported abduction of thousands of Eritrean refugees by the Eritrean regime from Sudan and opposed UK’s extradition of an Eritrean refugee while at the same time revealed that increasing number of Eritreans including senior military officers sought asylum in Sudan.
Eritrea reportedly abducting 4,000 Eritreans from Sudan
Sudan Tribune (http://www.sudantribune.com/spip.php?article25321)
The Eritrean government’s cross-border abduction of Eritreans in Sudan is significantly in a bigger scale than originally, reported the Eritrean opposition awate.com website.
"About 4 thousand Eritreans, mostly recent escapees from the mandatory national military service are picked up from some temporary refugee centers in Sudan over the past few weeks and loaded in vehicles forcibly back to Eritrean border" the source said.
Eritreans are continuously abducted and secretly loaded back home by some Eritrean government agents under a cover trick says Andu Mana, Eritrean Kunama Democratic Front’s Chairman.
"This is not the first or second time report of such action by the government but Eritrean spies have been repeatedly abducting Eritreans who has been fleeing to Sudan seeking safety."
He also said that the refugees are lured by the government agents who promise them better jobs in Khartoum and other Sudanese business cities.
"Eritrea is breaching the international law on refugees as it wishes, and Sudan is turning a blind eye from stopping the crime." Andu added.
After several years of support of their respective opposition parties, relations between Sudan and Eritrea have now very excellent relations since 2005.
Some Eritrean refugee rights advocates have already begun to complain to the UN Commission on Human Rights saying the government of Sudan has been turning a blind eye to what is happening, the website said.
In desperation, many of the youth have tried to jump off the trailers: some sustaining serious injuries and others are dying in the process. Once in Eritrea, they are thrown to Track B, Meiter, Sawa, Adi Abeito and the dozens of other known and unknown prisons scattered throughout the country.
Many Eritrean politicians agree that the cross-border mass abduction from Sudan by Eritrean Special Forces is believed to be the main reason for the current increase in the number of Eritreans fleeing to Ethiopia where there is relatively no risk of cross-border abduction by Eritrean spies.
Recently Eritreans fleeing to neighboring Ethiopia has reached high on record. "An average of 600 Eritreans cross to Ethiopian borders every month" the north Ethiopia military command post says.
This figure is double compared to 3 to 4 months ago.
One-third of the total Eritreans fleeing to Ethiopia are, Eritrean military members” the command post said adding "12 Eritrean air force and navy members have also crossed to Ethiopia after new Ethiopian millennium turns in."
Senior Eritrean Military officers Sought Asylum in Sudan
Asenai.com (http://asena-online.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=603&Itemid=70)
Three Senior Eritrean military officers sought political asylum in the Sudan, reported the Sudanese independent Arabic newspaper Al-Sahafa on Friday.
The newspaper, which failed to specify their rank, revealed that one of them was head of administrative issues and the other two were senior officials at the finance department in Sawa, the infamous military training camp where thousands forcibly conscripted Eritrean youth are obliged to do six months training.
Despite the Sudanese and Eritrean governments’ collaborated abduction of refugees, hundreds of Eritreans from all walks of life are massing to seek asylum in Sudan, daily.
We will up date you as soon as we get further details regarding the Eritrean officials who sought political asylum in the Sudan.
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