Eritrea and Yemen Allegedly 'Conspire' to Deport Refugees

An exiled Eritrean opposition political organization has denounced what it said was a "security arrangement" between Eritrea and Yemen to deport thousands of Eritrean refugees, most ethnically Afar fishermen who sought asylum in the Gulf state.
The Ethiopia-based Red Sea Afar Democratic Organization (RSADO) on Thursday told Sudan Tribune that, Yemeni Interior Minister, Abdul-Qader Qahtan, and Eritrean ambassador to Yemen, Musa Yasin, has held discussions last week on common security concerns.
The two sides conferred over ways of curbing illegal immigration from the Red Sea nation to the Yemeni coast and reviewed the situations of the Yemeni and Eritrean fishermen who depend on traditional fishing for living from the shared water territory.
During the bilateral talks the two sides agreed to set mechanisms to deport illegal Eritrean refugees in Yemen.
RSADO has expressed concerns over the planed deportation and called on the international community to intervene.
"The recent security agreement between Yemen and Eritrea violates international rights of refugees to seek asylum" Abdu Sheik Mohamed, the head of RSADO's Political Department to the international community, told Sudan Tribune.
Yemen is one the few countries in the region which is signatory the 1951 Geneva's Refugee Convention, however the country is accused of being "unfriendly" to refugees particularly to asylum seekers from East African nations.
The Eritrean opposition official called on the international community to put pressure on Yemen to reverse the "illegal security arrangement" which if implemented would lead to forcible deportation of thousands of Eritrean Afar refugees.
If deported, the Eritrean nationals will face a serious risk of prosecutions by the regime back home, including lengthy jail terms in harsh prison facilities or a possible punishment of death, according to the group.
Following the security meeting between Asmara and Sana, prison officials have began to threaten and take action against the refugees for expulsion.
Accordingly, on September 27, 2012 Yemen special forces went to a detention center, where deserted Eritrean Navy members are also being held, and started to force them out of the camp for deportation, however the attempt was foiled after a strong resistance from the imprisoned Eritrean refugees.
Since President Issayas Afeworki assumed power in 1991, tens and thousands of Eritreans have fled the regimes extreme political repression to neighbouring countries.
Eritrea requires all citizens above 18 and aged under 50 to serve in the military indefinitely.
Eritrean has also intensified repression against minority groups such as the Afars and Kunamas who continually face persecution, imprisonment, torture or death by regime's agents who accuse them of cooperating in spying activities with their fellow Afar and Kunama brothers in Ethiopia.
Eritrean Afars and Yemini fishermen, both residing side by side along the territorial waters of both countries are historical interrelated and Eritrean Afars fear that the recently planned security measures would affect the age long traditional and economic ties between the two peoples.
In fear of prosecution, thousands of Eritrean Afars annually flee to Yemen by their small fishing boats. Dozens of Navy members have also deserted with their speed boats to Yemen in the past.
Anyone who leaves the country without permission is labeled as a deserter or traitor by the regime and if caught would risk a serious punishment.

AFAR REFUGEES IN ETHIOPIA
Meanwhile, Eritrean Afar refugees at a camp in Ethiopia this week demonstrated in protest to the planned security measures arranged by Eritrea and Yemen, an organizing group said.
Some 800 Eritrean Afar refugees rallied in the streets of Semera, a city in Ethiopia's Afar region near the borders to Eritrea, where they voiced their opposition to the security arrangement.
Reached by phone, head of the Eritrean Refugees' Youth League in Ethiopia, Ahmed Ela-Miso, told Sudan Tribune that the demonstration was in protest to the deportation plan arranged in the pretext of Security cooperation.
Eritrea gained independence from Ethiopia in 1993 but almost two decades on the Horn of Africa neighbours still dispute where the border between them lies. This was the major course of their 1998-2000 conflict.

Professor addresses human rights in Eritrea

On Wednesday, Dr. Tricia Hepner, an associate professor of anthropology at UT, gave a presentation about how refugees from Eritrea use human rights discourse to address their experiences, focusing particularly on a group she calls "Generation Asylum," referring to the young people who were born or came of age after 1993, when Eritrea claimed its independence from Ethiopia.

In Dr. Hepner's presentation, she described the nature of life in Eritrea due to the way the government restricts its citizens, the many dangers refugees from Eritrea face, and the struggle of these refugees and asylum-seekers in other countries.
According to Dr. Hepner, the Eritrean government implemented an extensive militarization process after gaining its independence and currently boasts the largest developmental army on the African continent and one of the largest in the world.
She claimed that the militarization is a social process as well as an economic process and used higher education as a specific example.
"The University of Asmara has essentially been dismantled and devolved into a series of military-run technical colleges," said Dr. Hepner. "All students must complete their final year of high school in the military training facility, otherwise they cannot graduate from high school."
Dr. Hepner spoke about the countries these refugees travel to and the routes they must take to gain entry to these countries.
"The first countries of asylum are predominantly Ethiopia and Sudan," she said. "One of the major destinations has been to Egypt and then passing through Egypt through the Sinai to get to Israel."
She added that there are about 40,000 Eritrean refugees located in Israel, many of whom have been trafficked for profit.
"Many of the migrants never get to their destination," Dr. Hepner said. "They're trafficked either as sex slaves or for their organs."
Even certain American policies make it difficult for Eritrean refugees to make their way to this country. According to Dr. Hepner, one such policy is TRIG, or the Terrorism Related Inadmissibility Grounds.
"The U.S. defines as a terrorist 'two or more people, either organized or not, who have advocated the overthrowing of an establish government by use of force.' That's a really broad definition," she said. "So if you've been a member of an organization that opposes a brutal dictatorship that maybe has advocated taking up arms, the U.S. government can define you as a terrorist and prevent you from getting asylum or refugee status in the U.S."
She discussed a bit of the process of obtaining refugee status and moving from camp to camp.
"The UNHCR (the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, also commonly known as The UN Refugee Agency) staff is really available for only two or three hours a week in the camp," Dr. Hepner said. "It's very difficult to get anybody's attention at the UNHCR."
Dr. Hepner showed a document that was presented to her by the Refugee Central Committee, made up of the inhabitants of the camp. The document outlined various violations of human rights within these camps. The target of the document was in fact the UNHCR and other organizations supposedly dedicated to "promoting and protecting the rights of refugees."
"I'm in (Dr. Hepner's) class on human rights," said Kathryn Gard, sophomore in anthropology who attended the presentation. "It's real world experiences of the topics we're discussing."
"We've been talking about terror and terrorism, the difference between them and how terror is the cause of terrorism," said Kala Hudson, senior in psychology who also attended the lecture. "We're about to get into refugees and...the consequences of what happens."

2 Eritrean military officers defected to Saudi Arabia

An official source at the Ministry of Defense and Aviation and Inspector General that yesterday afternoon, entered the atmosphere Kingdom plane Eritrean vertical-type "17 M" Russian-made, where the commander of the aircraft distress call to airport Jazan, then the plane landed safely in northern region of Jizan, was ensuring the safety of the aircraft .

The pilot requested and assistant political asylum .. The investigation is still going on to find out the real reasons for the decline.

The helicopter landed Army War Eritrean suddenly boy in Jazan province yesterday, and in between the village Algra and DOE city. The pilot requested and his assistant and two officers of the armed forces Eritrean first lieutenant political asylum to the kingdom.
According to the newspaper "Al-Watan" Saudi Arabia, the captain and his assistant officers in the Eritrean army with the rank of lieutenant. The male they were fugitives from working in the Eritrean armed forces, and wanted political asylum in Saudi Arabia.

Ethiopia's New PM Says Policies Will Remain Constant

Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn giving his maiden speech at the UN General Assembly as Ethiopia's leader. Photo UN September 28, 2012 New York, NY

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

NEW YORK — Ethiopia's Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn has pledged to maintain the controversial policies of his predecessor, Meles Zenawi, who died last month. The Ethiopian leader outlined his views on foreign and domestic issues in an interview with VOA's Peter Heinlein in New York.


On Eritrea, he said he sees no sign of a thaw in a relationship that has been frozen since an indecisive two-year war that ended in 2000. That conflict left at least 70,000 people dead.
Eritrea says progress depends on Ethiopia's acceptance of an international border commission ruling that favors Eritrea's position. However, Hailemariam says the only solution lies in bilateral dialogue.
"There is no change in policy. Our policy designed after the war since nine years, a standing policy that we need to have dialogue without conditions, so we offered this to the Eritrean government and leadership and are waiting for this to happen for the last nine years and will continue to do so," said Hailemariam.

Abducted from Sudan, tortured in Sinai: Mother and child languish in Israeli jail

After facing brutal treatment at the hands of Sinai smugglers, an Eritrean mother and her baby daughter – who did not intend to go to Israel – have found themselves victim to Israeli policy, despite not having done a thing to deserve such a fate.
By Anat Ben-Dor
There are things one can do only when no one else is looking. Detaining a baby girl a year and three months old for a period of three years, for instance. We met Ambat* yesterday in Saharonim prison – an active child, she was dressed in red and was held in her mother’s arms. We sat in the oppressive 30 degree heat for an hour, and while we interviewed her mother, little Ambat attempted to entertain herself. She hopped around gleefully, laid down on her stomach in order to peek under the caravan, scanning the floor in the hopes of finding some new form of entertainment.
The two of them have been in this prison, surrounded by fences, security towers and barbed wire for over three months. Trapped in a tent with 12 others – six women and six children. It is doubtful whether Ambat’s mother, who is only 23, knows that she and her daughter will spend the next three years in this place.
Ambat and her mother Zabib* have been jailed for “infiltration into Israel.” This past January, the law was amended to to allow placing “infiltrators” under administrative detention for a period of three years, in order to deter future “infiltrators” from entering Israel. However, Zabib never intended to go to Israel. She was born in a small village in Eritrea, where she was married. Her husband was drafted into the military, leaving Zabib in the village, where she could barely support herself through selling food. She saw her husband just once every half year. When she was six months pregnant, her husband defected to Sudan, where he lives today. After the birth of her daughter, Zabib and Ambat left Eritrea in an attempt to reunite with her husband in Sudan. Shortly after crossing the border, the two were kidnapped at gunpoint by smugglers. That is where their long and painful journey began.
Zabib and Ambat were transferred from one person to another on their way to Sinai. Sometimes, they would lay down in the trunks of vehicles, and sometimes inside boats. The elderly people that were with them during the journeys often fainted due to the trying conditions. It is still unclear how little Ambat managed to survive. In the end, they were brought to a smugglers’ camp in Sinai. There, Zabib’s legs were cuffed, while the smugglers demanded a ransom of $25,000 in exchange for her release. This is when the baby turned into her mother’s protector. While other women were raped and sexually abused, Zabib was only the victim of beatings and lashings. The smugglers often dangled Ambat out a window, threatening to throw her in front of her mother. They also slapped her when she cried. Zabib says that Ambat learned from the smugglers: she gently strokes her mother’s cheek before suddenly slapping her, in much the same way as the smuggler slapped Ambat.
They stayed at the camp for five long months. Some of the other detainees died after being tortured, or from the harsh conditions. In the end, however, after her family sold all of their belongings, Zabib and Ambat were released. After crossing the border with Israel, Ambat was brought to Soroka Hospital due to fatigue and malnourishment. She is currently in Saharonim Prison, and the future that she faces is especially frightening: this is a baby that will never taste freedom – will never take a walk in the park or along the beach. In the next few years, she will sit with her mother behind bars, victim to Israel’s policy, despite the two not having done a thing to deserve such a fate. It is doubtful that she will meet her father in Sudan, or whether she will ever be able to reunite with him. It will be interesting to see what kind of behavior she will adopt from Israeli prison.
When we said goodbye, Ambat blew us kisses. Luckily, she is too young to know what awaits her.
*All names used in this piece are fake
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