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.

"We are living a dream" Daniel Teklehaimanot and Natnael Berhane

Eritreans Teklehaimanot and Berhane are ensemblesur race World Tour

Daniel Teklehaimanot and Natnael Berhane, These two Eritreans are participating this week in the Critérium du Dauphiné 2013 France .

This is the first time that two Africans come together in a single World Tour race. "We are living a dream," they let go, with a smile that speaks volumes. ls know how lucky they are to be professional, having had to leave their country due to insufficient infrastructure. Spotted Eritrea (*) with their many victories as an amateur, and Daniel Natnael integrated the World Cycling Centre (WCC) in Aigle (Switzerland) to advance and foresee professionalism.
"Cycling is one of the most popular sports in our country, says Teklehaimanot (24) and pro since last year in the Australian team GreenEdge Orica, based in Italy. Eritreans enjoy cycling. When I ' was young, I watched the big races on television, I thought it was unattainable ... And now there is "To achieve this, the World Centre was an obligatory point of passage for many young people as cyclists from emerging countries.
"Without the World Cycling Centre, it would not become pro" (Daniel Teklehaimanot) It was therefore not surprising to see an Ivorian and a Mexican with a jersey CMC last Sunday at the start of the Dauphiné in Champéry (about twenty miles from Eagle) "We learn all.'s Position on a bike, the science of race, tactics, how to roll, rub out, diet, improve our efforts ... In short, anything that helps to improve to become a real runner, says Daniel Teklehaimanot, the pioneer past by MCC between 2009 and 2011. Otherwise, we would not become professional. "
He quickly proves the benefits of this learning and finished a promising sixth place finish at the Tour de l'Avenir in 2009. The following year, he won five titles at stake at the African Championships. This climber, also good rider, sees then offer two-year contract with Orica. This trajectory has obviously inspired his young compatriot Natnael Berhane (22 years). "I arrived at CMC in 2011, says neo-pro Europcar. Had a year together, Daniel helped me a lot."
That's an understatement! The second was even a "model" for the first. After starting small by VTT, Berhane is passed on the road by 2006. He followed in the footsteps of Teklehaimanot, winning also all national titles in the age categories and then its successor the continental record. "Since he was little, I know he is capable of excellent performance, says the elder, returning to competition after a seven-month absence due to a visa problem. We are very good friends. We train together, we run together in the national team, we speak in shopping, online, on the phone. I explained everything to him, I suggested, but now he did not need me anymore! "
"Daniel has opened a way, I followed. Hopefully others will follow" Natnael Berhane
Natnael, who lives at the mansion Dessessart where Europcar seat, made a big splash in the world of the elite of the Tour of Turkey. End of April, there won the most difficult step, a summit finish at Elmali, which allowed him to wear the leader's jersey for three days. "I could not imagine having these results, it was amazing ", he says in his soft voice, which contrasts with its explosive nature on a bike. This week, the Dauphiné, they are satisfied with their mate role. "I am happy and lucky to be there, repeats at Natnael. This is a great race and more, we have the jersey yellow, with David Veilleux. This is perfect! "
However, the overall shows that they still bearing a cross:. Daniel is 98th in 12'47 "and the leader is ... Natnael 99th at 13'04" "For three years, I saw a dream, but I know it takes much work continues Europcar rider. Daniel has opened a way, I followed and now I hope that more of our countrymen succeed in becoming a professional. "
This modesty does not prevent them from having "a lot of dreams." If Daniel Teklehaimanot finished 92nd in the previous Dauphiné and participated in his first major Tour last year (146th in the Vuelta), both Eritreans have eyes that glow when they talk about the Tour. But neither the one nor the other will be the Tour de France on June 29.
Hope to participate in the 2014 guide there every day.

UN Urges the World to Keep Eritrea Under Scrutiny

Sheila B. Keetharuth  was appointed last year to the UN Special Rapporteur on Eritrea.

The United Nations Special Rapporteur on Eritrea, Sheila B. Keetharuth, reiterated her call on the international community to keep monitoring the human rights situation in Eritrea and to protect and support those fleeing the country, in particular the increasing numbers of unaccompanied children. 

“I urge the international community to keep Eritrea under close scrutiny until meaningful change is evident,” Ms. Keetharuth said during the presentation of her first report to the UN Human Rights Council. “It will be important to increase efforts to constructively engage with Eritrea and neighbouring countries to improve the situation of human rights in the country.”
Despite repeated requests,
theSpecial Rapporteur has not been granted access to Eritrea since her appointment in November 2012. As a result, her first official mission to the field was carried out from 30 April to 9 May 2013, when she conducted interviews at Eritrean refugee camps in neighbouring Ethiopia and Djibouti, which host large Eritrean refugee communities.

“I concentrated on gathering information on human rights violations from a broad spectrum of interlocutors, but more specifically from survivors,” Ms. Keetharuth said. “Most of the people I interviewed had left Eritrea recently and were able to share up-to-date information.”

patriarch Abune Antonios,under arrest since 2006

“I am extremely concerned about the human rights situation in Eritrea,” the independent expert stressed. “The prevailing situation in the country is characterised by extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearance and incommunicado detention, arbitrary arrest and detention, torture and inhumane prison conditions.”  
The Special Rapporteur noted with alarm the situation regarding mass round-ups, forced conscription and the indefinite national service, as well as the country-wide arming and military training of the civilian population, which started last year.
“Excessive militarisation is affecting the very fabric of Eritrean society, and its core unit, the family. The indefinite national service is depriving the women and men of Eritrea of their most productive years,” Ms. Keetharuth said. “Many of those I interviewed told me that their families would be unable to live in dignity without direct remittances from family and friends living abroad.”
 
“Severe curtailment of freedom of movement, opinion, expression, assembly, association and the right tofreedom of religion warrant serious concern,” she noted. “The restrictions of these rights, which are the very cornerstones of democratic societies, create a climate of fear fuelled by rumours, propaganda and suspicion. The result is an all-encompassing feeling of fear and distrust, even within families.”
In her report, the independent expert warns about the arbitrary use of power by the State, which violates the most fundamental principles of the rule of law, and a complete absence of accountability mechanisms to bring those responsible for the human rights violations to justice.
“The alarming human rights situation in Eritrea is triggering a constant stream of refugees to neighbouring countries,” she said. “Although there is a shoot-to-kill policy targeting those attempting to flee, many thousands of Eritrean citizens have fled over the past decade. The numbers are on the rise, with more than 4,000 Eritreans fleeing the country every month, despite the extreme dangers along escape routes and an unknown future.”

Eritrean Refugees in Ethiopia

“During my visit to refugee camps in Ethiopia, I met a large number of unaccompanied children crossing the border, some as young as seven or eight years old. Many leave home without the knowledge of their families, mostly as they fear the forced conscription into indefinite national service,” Ms. Keetharuth said.
“The increasing number of these unaccompanied minors not only poses major protection challenges but is indicative of the scale of despair these children are facing at home,” the human rights expert warned.
Ms. Keetharuth acknowledged Eritrea’s active participation in the universal periodic review in 2009/10, noting that the Government has reportedly initiated a follow-up process. “Eritrea’s second universal periodic review in January 2014 will provide another opportunity to engage on the human rights situation with the HRC and it will be interesting to see which concrete steps Eritrea has taken to honour its commitments under the UPR, she said.
“I would welcome the opportunity to engage in a frank and open dialogue with the Government of Eritrea to discuss these recommendations, as well as a range of issues and challenges linked to the full realization of human rights in Eritrea,” the Special Rapporteur reiterated.
  Click here to Check the SpecialRapporteur first report to the Human Rights Council

New York : Eritrean refugee gets 18 years in prison

A refugee and one-time cycling champion from Eritrea was sentenced on Monday to 18 years in prison for stabbing his estranged wife last year at a Wegmans store on Amherst Street.
 

Awet Gebreyesus, 33, of Busti Avenue, also faces deportation to Eritrea, a country in the Horn of Africa, following his prison term. But his lawyer argued against sending him back to his homeland.

“We do believe he will be subject to torture and perhaps execution,” said defense lawyer Andrew C. LoTempio.

Awet Gebreyesus

Gebreyesus had pleaded guilty to attempted murder. He admitted he stabbed his wife, Luam Abraha, in the head and upper body on Jan. 14, 2012 in the entryway of the grocery store, where the couple was making a custody exchange of their young son.

Prosecutors have said the wound to her skull severed an artery, putting the victim in the hospital for several weeks.

Gebreyesus on Monday appeared before State Supreme Court Justice Deborah A. Haendiges and spoke through a court interpreter. He said he was ready to accept the consequences of his crime but that he did not mean to intentionally harm his wife.

The judge ordered Gebreyesus to stay away from his wife and son for 25 years.

“You are to stay away from both of them,” Haendiges said. “Even if they … reach out to you, you should have no contact. Do you understand?”

Before sentencing, LoTempio asked the judge to consider giving Gebreyesus 15 years in prison instead of 18. LoTempio sought to clarify the presentencing report that indicated Gebreyesus fled Eritrea to avoid military service.

Gebreyesus, LoTempio said, had been the 500-meter cycling champion for Eritrea.

“He was somewhat of a noted celebrity,” LoTempio said in court.

The Eritrean government thought that those running the country’s Olympic cycling team were involved in a planned coup and questioned Gebreyesus. When Gebreyesus refused to cooperate, he fled the country and ended up in a refugee camp in Ethiopia, LoTempio said.

Gebreyesus’ behavior, however, had become a problem after he suffered a traumatic brain injury from a cycling fall, LoTempio said.

His symptoms were undiagnosed and continued after he resettled in the United States, his attorney said.

“When not medicated, he was completely delusional and thought somebody was trying to poison him,” LoTempio said. “He finally seems to be on the right medication, and he seems to be a kindhearted, soft-spoken man when medicated.”

“We are not using anything I say as an excuse,” LoTempio told the judge, “But there is an explanation to how this developed.”

Rachel Newton, chief of the Erie County District Attorney’s Domestic Violence Bureau, downplayed what she called the “undocumented” and “unconfirmed” brain injury and said Gebreyesus displayed typical domestic-violence behavior.

Israel Plans To Resettle Eritrean Migrants

An unidentified African country has agreed to take in Eritrean illegal immigrants living in Israel, if Israel gives them agricultural training first. according to Israeli court documents.

Humanitarian agencies say many of the 60,000 African migrants who have walked into Israel from Egypt should be considered for asylum. Israel regards most of them as illegal job-seekers, and a national debate on deporting them has stirred strong emotions in a Jewish state founded by war refugees and immigrants. At a Supreme Court hearing on Sunday on the legality of detaining asylum-seekers who entered Israel surreptitiously, a government lawyer      Said a deal to resettle “infiltrators from Eritrea” had been reached with a country she did not identify.
Israeli government officials declined to comment, but local media speculated that the statement was a tactic to forestall any court moves to release migrants detained for long periods.
An estimated 35,000 Eritreans are currently in Israel. Returning them to their homeland, a reclusive state accused last year by the U.N. human rights chief of torture and summary executions, is problematic under international law.
But moving them elsewhere could also raise legal issues. The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees says resettlement can only be considered once refugee status has been granted, something Israel has not done, although exceptions can be made.
“There is an arrangement with one country, which will be an end-destination and not a transit point,” the attorney said, according to a transcript provided by the Justice Ministry on Monday.
She told the court she could not reveal the name of the country because the hearing was open to the public.
Israel’s Army Radio said the country was in East Africa. Other media reported that Israel had offered it financial incentives to take the migrants in.
In all, more than 60,000 Africans, most of them men, have walked into Israel in recent years seeking work or refuge. Some 2,000, most of them caught at the Egyptian frontier, are being held in a detention center in southern Israel.
Pledging to stem the flow, Israel has responded by erecting a heavily patrolled fence along the Egyptian border, pursued legal penalties against Israelis who hire migrants without work permits, and launched deportation drives, although these have been small-scale so far.
“Compared with the more than 2,000 infiltrators who entered Israel exactly a year ago and dispersed in various cities, only two crossed the border last month, and they were arrested,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday, attributing the steep decline to construction of the barrier.
“Now we have to focus on repatriating the illegal infiltrators already here, and we will fulfill this mission,” he said in a statement, which made no mention of any resettlement arrangement.
 

Christians in Eritrea face extreme persecution

Eritrean Refugees worship at the Ebenezer Church in a camp in Ethiopia

A Christian leader in Eritrea says that religious persecution in the northeast African country "is at its highest level ever and getting worse," World Watch Monitor (WWM), the news outlet of Open Doors, a Christian charity reports.

 WWM reports the stories of Christians around the world under pressure for their faith.

It indicated that the leader's name would not be used because of security reasons.
The total number of Christians arrested in Eritrea this year has risen to 191 after the detention of 37 students from the College of Arts and Sciences Adi Kihe and five men from the Church of the Living God in Asmara, according to WWM.
Up to 3,000 Christians are imprisoned because of their faith in Eritrea.
Open Doors ranks the country 10th on its World Watch List and gives it the designation of "extreme persecution" on its scale.
Voice of the Martyrs (VOM) say many prisoners are held in metal shipping containers without ventilation or toilet facilities.
Eritrea allowed religious freedom until 2002, when the government announced it would only recognize religious groups: Sunni Islam, the Roman Catholic Church, the Orthodox Church of Eritrea, and the Lutheran-affiliated Evangelical Church of Eritrea, said VOM.
Since then, it says the Eritrean government has jailed, tortured and jailed numerous Eritreans for political and religious reasons.
As a result, Eritrea has been called "the North Korea of Africa".
Selem Kidane, an Eritrean expatriate and director of Release Eritrea, a UK-based human rights organization, said that while persecution is not limited to Christians, it is the underground church which is suffering the most.
"Any religion that is not willing to come under the control of the government is being persecuted," she said."It's not just confined to Christians."
"But in terms of being completely banned, it's the minority churches that have suffered the most - the Pentecostal church, the Evangelical church - they are the ones who have been stigmatized and been accused of all sorts of things by their communities and other faith groups."
There are 2.5 million Christians in Eritrea, mostly Orthodox, according to World Watch List.
The human rights advocacy organization Amnesty International issued a report earlier in May that backed up the claims of the maltreatment of dissenters in Eritrea.
It said that there is "rampant repression" in the country 20 years after it split from Ethiopia and became independent.
"The government has systematically used arbitrary arrest and detention without charge to crush all opposition, to silence all dissent, and to punish anyone who refuses to comply with the repressive restrictions it places on people's lives," said Claire Beston, Amnesty International's Eritrea researcher.
The Amnesty International report, entitled "Twenty Years of Independence, but Still No Freedom", says that journalists, people practicing an unregistered religion, and people trying to flee the country are detained and held in unimaginably atrocious conditions.
A report by International Christian Concern (ICC) indicated that Christians who try to flee have been kidnapped by human traffickers.
The ICC report said that "these vulnerable Christians are attacked and kidnapped from refugee camps, then transported to the Sinai desert, where they are sold like commodities."
The victims are tortured and their agony relayed by phone to families back in Eritrea or Diaspora groups in order to elicit ransom. If the ransom is not paid, the victims or tortured to death, including by removing saleable organs, said ICC.
Even if the ransoms are paid, human traffickers may sell their victims to other criminal groups.
Amnesty International has appealed to Egypt and Sudan to stop the kidnappings of refugees in Sudan and their transport to Egypt. In addition, Eritrean opposition groups are demanding increased security at the camps.
The chairman of the Ethiopia-based Eritrean Democratic Alliance, Tewelde Gebresilase, said on the ICC website that human trafficking is being carried out by a highly organized network.
He said it is a highly lucrative business for Bedouins and for Egyptian, Sudanese and Eritrean officials, who take bribes to facilitate the trade and it is a major source of income for the Eritrean regime.
Despite reports and attempts at international intervention, the government claims no one is persecuted in Eritrea and rejected the Amnesty International report as "wild accusations" and "totally unsubstantiated."
VOM says on its website that a religious liberty report indicated that Eritrean President Isaias Afewerki wants to restrict the right to assembly.
He fears religious freedom because it may lead to evangelism by Christians, which he believes in turn will lead to social tensions that will assist outside groups in destabilizing the nation.