New sanctions on Eritrea

Security Council placed additional sanctions on Eritrea on 5th December 2011

Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW) and Human Rights Concern Eritrea (HRCE) have called for the imposition of targeted sanctions on key Eritrean officials in order to secure the release of prominent politicians and journalists who have been detained incommunicado for the last twelve years.
On 18 September 2001 the Eritrean government closed all independent media outlets, detaining several journalists and eleven of fifteen prominent ruling party members who had called for democracy, along with their family members. None of the detainees have been charged or tried. While on several occasions members of the ruling regime have denied all knowledge of named detainees, unwittingly transforming these cases into enforced disappearances, regime apologists often attempt to portray the lack of due process as protection against certain death sentences.
Credible reports indicate the detainees are held incommunicado in life threatening conditions in Era Ero, a purpose-built remote prison, where they are subjected to privations and inhuman and degrading treatment. Their hands are reportedly cuffed in front of their bodies during the day and behind their backs at night. They are held in indefinite solitary confinement, have not been allowed to see other prisoners, have no access to family or legal representatives, are referred to by a number, and receive no form of mental stimulation, since guards are ordered not to converse with them. They are also subjected to torture. At least 15 prisoners are reported to have died as a result of the harsh conditions, while nine are said to be suffering severe health challenges.
In a 2003 ruling on the cases of eleven of the detained politicians the African Commission found Eritrea to be in violation of the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights, and urged the government to free the individuals immediately and pay them compensation. In a 2007 ruling the Commission stressed that "no political situation justifies the wholesale violation of human rights", and called for detained journalists to either be released or brought "to a speedy and fair trial." The Commission also called on Eritrea to lift its press ban, to grant the detainees immediate access to their families and legal representatives, and to ensure they received compensation. The Eritrean government has ignored both decisions.
Elsa Chyrum, Director of HRCE said: "The treatment meted out to the innocent prisoners in Era Ero is barbaric and inhumane. No government should be allowed to subject its people to treatment that amounts to a crime against humanity. Twelve years is too long. Given the severity of the situation and Eritrea's continued flouting of the African Commission rulings, it is time for the international community to seriously consider imposing targeted sanctions on the President and his close political allies as pressure for the release of these detainees."
Khataza Gondwe, CSW's Africa and Middle East Team Leader said: "The treatment meted out to these prisoners is an affront to human dignity and a violation of Eritrea's obligations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the African Charter. These people peacefully requested a free and democratic Eritrea where the rule of law was upheld, yet for the last twelve years they have been held in deliberately life-threatening conditions where fifteen may have died and others are reportedly close to death. Time is of the essence. CSW echoes the call for sanctions targeting key individuals within the Eritrean government with a view to securing compliance with the African Commission decisions that stipulate the immediate release of these prisoners."

"MeqaleH Forto (መቓልሕ ፎርቶ)" Underground Eritrean newspaper published

An underground newspaper was circulated on the streets of Asmara yesterday, 12 years after the Eritrean government banned all privately owned media and arrested journalists and proprietors, Freedom Friday Movement (Arbi Harnet) has announced. 
MeqaleH Forto, which means Echoes of Forto, is said to have been inspired by the attempted coup on 21 January this year. The paper is produced by a small team both inside Eritrea and in the diaspora, and is distributed using informal links and networks.
Freedom Friday activists say that while their pilot circulations have been limited, there is plenty of room for expansion.
In its inaugural edition, MeqaleH Forto included Tigrigna and Arabic articles about Freedom Friday and the other diaspora based resistance movements, in line with the objectives of the movement to link the resistance inside the country to those in the diaspora.
The paper is financed by supporters of the movement, who have are mainly been mobilised via Facebook and other social media platforms.
"The date is significant for us as the very last editions of Eritrea's fledgling private newspapers ran last 12 years ago today," the team said. "While we are aware that one underground newsletter with extremely limited circulation isn't the answer to freedom of press in a secretive country such as Eritrea, it is our contribution to keeping that hope alive for us and others to build on."
Initial reactions to the inaugural issue were said to be generally positive and Freedom Friday is now looking for media professionals and those with links and networks inside the country to support in the production and distribution of subsequent issues.

Ethiopia opened new camp for Eritrean refugees

Eritrean refugee camp  Shimelba, Ethiopia

The UN refugee agency has opened a new camp in northern Ethiopia to house the increasing number of Eritrean refugees entering the country. A total 776 Eritrean refugees have already been transferred to Hitsats Camp, which can house up to 20,000 refugees. 

This is a big step forward in the protection of Eritrean refugees in this area, said Michael Owor, head of UNHCR's sub-office in Shire, which has erected 200 family tents and dug a communal well to handle the arrival of the new refugees at the camp on land provided by the Ethiopian government.
The government has also set up a temporary medical clinic and reception facilities for arriving refugees.
So far this year, UNHCR and the government's refugee agency, the Administration for Refugee and Returnee Affairs (ARRA), have registered more than 4,000 Eritrean refugees, overwhelming the capacity of the existing three camps in the region, which house nearly 49,000 refugees. A large number of the new arrivals are unaccompanied minors who require special protection.

Eritrean refugees board a bus for transfer to a new refugee camp Hitsats.

What is unusual is that most of the Eritrean refugees fleeing to Ethiopia are young educated men from cities, unlike most refugee situations where the majority of refugees are women and children.
The predominance of young men is a pattern observed throughout the region, where Eritrean refugees tell UNHCR staff they are fleeing indefinite military service for both men and women.
In eastern Sudan, the UN refugee agency has also seen a significant number of children arriving on their own, but the number of refugee arrivals has dropped to between 400 and 600 per month this year from 2,000 a month in 2012. The total number of Eritrean refugees in Sudan is more than 114,500.
In Djibouti, arrivals are holding steady, at 112 for the first five months of this year, practically the same as the 110 Eritreans who arrived in the same period last year.
Eritrean refugees cross into Ethiopia through 16 entry points from which they are collected and brought to a reception station for screening and registration. Before departure from the reception center, the refugees are issued with basic assistance items, including sleeping mats, blankets, jerrycans, water buckets, soap and mosquito nets. They are also provided with tents and food rations once they get to the new camp.
As of the end of May, Ethiopia is hosting 71,833 Eritrean refugees in four camps in Tigray region and two others in the Afar region in north-eastern Ethiopia. Transfers to the new camp are taking place every second day.

Eritrean opposition members arrested in Sudan

Flag of Eritrean Islamic movement (Eritrean Jihad)

Eight members of an Eritrean opposition Movement have been arrested in Sudan’s border region, a leader of the exile group said on Wednesday.They were detained on Saturday around Kassala town, said a leader of the Eritrean Islamic Reform Movement, who asked not to be named.

He said all the detainees are members of the group’s military wing and include its chief, Abu Abbas.
Sudanese state security agents surrounded their homes and took them away, the activist said.
“Since then there has been no contact with their families. We are worried about them,” he said.
A United Nations expert said last week that the “dire” human rights situation in Eritrea is leaving its citizens no option but to flee.

founders of Eritrean Islamic Reform Movement at declaration of unity fusion between Eritrean Islamic Congress And the Islamic Council ,(27th May 2011)

Sheila Keetharuth told reporters in Geneva that thousands have escaped despite a shoot-to-kill policy for those trying to cross into neighbouring Ethiopia or Sudan.
Eastern Sudan is home to tens of thousands of ethnic Eritreans.
Opposition parties are banned under the regime of Issaias Afeworki, who has ruled the Horn of Africa nation since its independence in 1993.
  This news was originally posted by www.capitalfm.co.ke  click here to see the original post.

Swiss 'back' stricter asylum law

Switzerland a country which is a shelter for more than 18,000 Eritrean refugees had made new & stricter asylum law for Eritreans.  


The Swiss have held a referendum on a government move to tighten the country's asylum law amid a spike in refugees, with early results and opinion polls suggesting a vote in favour.
Shortly after polling stations closed on Sunday at noon (1000 GMT), nine of Switzerland's 23 cantons had accepted changes made to the asylum law last September, according to results given by public broadcaster RTS. The most recent poll in late May showed 57 percent of Swiss in favour of the tougher asylum rules.
The amendments included removing military desertion from a list of valid grounds for seeking asylum in Switzerland Military desertion had been the grounds for asylum most frequently cited by Eritreans, who accounted for most applications to Switzerland last year. Eritrea imposes unlimited military service, with low wages, on all able-bodied men and women.
The revision, which took effect last September, also removed the possibility - which had been unique in Europe - to apply for asylum from Swiss embassies instead of travelling to Switzerland to do so. Opponents have described the change as  "inhumane".
Justice Minister Simonetta Sommaruga insisted the changes were needed and stressed that they have significantly speeded up the application process.
"Leaving people and their families for so long wallowing in uncertainty is unacceptable," she said recently.
Switzerland currently counts 48,000 people in the process of seeking asylum, including 28,631 who arrived in 2012.
The surge, attributed in part to the Arab Spring uprisings, marks the highest number since the Balkans war in 1999, when nearly 48,000 people sought refuge in the country.