From: Subject: The plight of Eritrean refugees | Khataza Gondwe | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk Date: Sat, 20 Jun 2009 07:24:20 -0700 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: multipart/related; type="text/html"; boundary="----=_NextPart_000_004F_01C9F178.21100F80" X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V6.00.2900.5579 This is a multi-part message in MIME format. ------=_NextPart_000_004F_01C9F178.21100F80 Content-Type: text/html; charset="utf-8" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Content-Location: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/belief/2009/jun/20/eritrea-refugees-misghina =EF=BB=BF The plight of = Eritrean refugees | Khataza Gondwe | Comment is free | = guardian.co.uk

The plight of Eritrean refugees

A brutal dictatorship has = forced=20 thousands of people to flee Eritrea =E2=80=93 but seeking asylum many = face violence and=20 death

Comments=20 (=E2=80=A6)
Buzz=20 up!=20
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- Khataza=20 Gondwe
- guardian.co.uk,=20 Saturday 20 June 2009 14.00 BST

Last week, Abrehale = Misghina, a=20 28-year-old Eritrean refugee, committed suicide in broad daylight in a = public=20 park in Tel Aviv. He had snatched a mobile phone from a young boy and, = after a=20 desperate attempt to make a call, collapsed in tears. He then returned = the phone=20 to its owner, dragged a dustbin to a nearby tree, climbed on top of it, = threw a=20 rope over a branch, placed a noose around his neck and hanged = himself.

Misghina's story is typical of the suffering=20 of Eritrean refugees and asylum seekers. Increasing numbers = Eritreans have=20 fled their country since President Isaias = Afewerki=20 came to power in 1993. Afewerki was initially hailed as a model = leader, but=20 is now seen as one of the worst dictators in Africa.

Meetings of more than seven people require permission in Eritrea. = Internet=20 use is monitored. There is no free press, independent judiciary or = political=20 opposition. Citizens, tourists and diplomats require permission to = travel from=20 one town to another. Military service conscripts are used as forced = labour in=20 development projects and, despite the failure of successive rains and = imminent=20 famine, food aid was outlawed in favour of a "work for food" programme,=20 ostensibly designed to promote self-reliance, but which in reality = ensures=20 compliance.

The suppression of the press and of political opposition in September = 2001=20 provided early indications of the authoritarian nature of the ruling = regime.=20 Then, in 2002, the government in effect outlawed every religious = practice except=20 Orthodoxy, Catholicism, Lutheranism and Sunni Islam, and increasingly = detained=20 practitioners of proscribed religious persuasions indefinitely without = trial.=20 Authorised groups face repression. Almost 3,000 of the estimated 20,000 = Eritrean=20 prisoners of conscience are Christians, detained pending denial of their = faith.=20 The ordained Orthodox patriarch was illegally deposed and placed under = house=20 arrest. Catholic property has been seized. About 40 Muslim clerics were=20 indefinitely detained.

I have interviewed former prisoners of all faiths and none. They = describe a=20 myriad of inhumane punishments, including beatings, rape, people blinded = by the=20 sun after months/years imprisoned underground, prisoners bound for so = long in=20 contorted positions that limbs atrophy and are amputated, imprisonment = in=20 shipping containers, extra-judicial executions, and inadequate food, = water and=20 medical treatment.

Small wonder that thousands flee, despite a shoot-to-kill policy for=20 escapees. Some pick their way through the mined and patrolled border = with=20 Ethiopia. Others cross the Sahara on foot to Sudan, but have found = little hope=20 of sanctuary since the country's rapprochement with Eritrea. Putting = their lives=20 in the hands of people smugglers, they try to escape to Libya, where = they face=20 severe mistreatment, racial discrimination and harsh detention. Some=20 subsequently cross the Mediterranean in overcrowded, unseaworthy vessels = hoping=20 for refuge in Europe, where asylum is far from assured. Others enter = Egypt,=20 risking fines for illegal entry, harsh imprisonment and, worse still, = forcible=20 return to Eritrea. Those who cross into Israel run into the harsh = reality of the=20 modern state, where an anti-infiltration law may soon criminalise asylum = seeking, and where they are either imprisoned or forced to live in = slums.

The search for refuge has resulted in the deaths of an unknown number = of=20 Eritreans in the Sahara, the Mediterranean or, like Misghina, through = suicide in=20 foreign cities.

Human rights organisations recently pointed out that a European Union = decision to release development aid to Eritrea is effect an economic = lifeline=20 for a repressive regime that will manipulate its distribution. Perhaps = the EU=20 would act differently if it considered the increase in the flow of = refugees to=20 its borders, and in their appalling suffering en route.

World=20 news

= Eritrea=20 =C2=B7=20
Refugees=20 =C2=B7=20
Human=20 rights

= More=20 comment

World news

= Eritrea=20 =C2=B7=20
Refugees=20 =C2=B7=20
Human=20 rights

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