12 May 2011
“If refugee flows are a sign of political meltdown, then Eritrea is a level seven nuclear disaster. Figures from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees indicate that Eritrea, with a population of only about five million, has been among the top ten refugee producing countries in the world for the better part of the decade.” – Tricia Redeker Hepner
According to data from the UNHCR (2009 Global Trends, available at http://www.unhcr.org/pages/49c3646c4d6.html), there were almost 210,000 refugees from Eritrea in that year, of whom only 2,500 benefited from UNHCR refugee resettlement programs that year.
The case of Eritrea, Hepner argues, is an indicator not only of desperate conditions within Eritrea, but also of the structural failure of the international refugee system to find sustainable solutions for long-term refugees.
A similar failure is evident in the report by the Guardian on May 9 that NATO ships ignored the plight of a stranded ship of African migrants, including Ethiopians, Eritreans, and others, seeking to flee Libya, resulting in the death of 63 of the 72 persons on board.
Migrants stranded in Libya include both nationalities already having refugee status in Libya and workers in Libya now fleeing the latest violence there and now seeking asylum as refugees. Despite alarmist rhetoric from Italian leaders, in fact only a small minority of those fleeing Libya have yet attempted to reach Europe rather than fleeing to neighboring countries. (See earlier AfricaFocus Bulletins at http://www.africafocus.org/migrexp.php). Nevertheless, there have already been hundreds, and perhaps thousands, lost at sea.
According to the latest reports, the Libyan government is now actively encouraging migrants to take to sea in vessels that are not seaworthy, adding to the number taking this dangerous alternative.
International agencies as well as migrants’ rights activists have called both for an investigation of the failure of NATO ships to respond and for stepped-up international coordination to locate and rescue those attempting to escape Libya by sea.
This AfricaFocus Bulletin contains Hefner’s reflection on the situation of Eritrean refugees, as Eritrea approaches its 20th anniversary of independence later this month, and a press release from Human Rights Watch on the report of NATO failure to respond to ships in danger on the Mediterranean carrying African migrants from Libya.
Other sources of interest, both for background and for current news, include
(1) Books on Eritrea:
Bereket Habte Selassie, Wounded Nation: How a Once Promising Eritrea Was Betrayed and Its Future Compromised http://www.africafocus.org/books/isbn.php?1569023409
Tricia Redeker Hepner, Soldiers, Martyrs, Traitors, and Exiles: Political Conflict in Eritrea and the Diaspora http://www.africafocus.org/books/isbn.php?0812221516
[For more books on Eritrea see http://www.africafocus.org/books/afbooks.php#er1]
(2) Migrants in the Mediterranean
“Aircraft carrier left us to die, say migrants” Exclusive: Boat trying to reach Lampedusa was left to drift in Mediterranean for 16 days, despite alarm being raised http://www.guardian.co.uk / Direct URL: http://tinyurl.com/3shqa6w
Petition for investigation of NATO failure to rescue migrants http://priorityafricanetwork.blogspot.com/
Migrants at Sea blog (includes both news and official reports, including legal documents) http://migrantsatsea.wordpress.com/
(3) Eritrea’s 20th anniversary and planned demonstrations
Asmarino Independent http://asmarino.com/home
Eritrean Youth for Change Facebook page http://tinyurl.com/5ugupcg
For information on a planned May 27 demonstration by Eritrean youth in the California Bay Area, see http://www.priorityafrica.org/Calendar-Events.html
Elizabeth/ Elsa Chyrum: Human Rights Activist (Eritrea) Asmarino Independent, Oct. 2, 2009 http://www.asmarino.com / direct URL: http://tinyurl.com/64zruvz
For previous AfricaFocus Bulletins on Eritrea, visit http://www.africafocus.org/country/eritrea.php
For previous AfricaFocus Bulletins on migration issues, visit http://www.africafocus.org/migrexp.php – Editor’s Note
Human tsunamis and the world refugee system
Tricia Redeker Hepner
2011-05-05, Issue 527
Pambazuka News
http://pambazuka.org/en/category/features/72941
This article first appeared at Counter Punch, on April 22, 2011.
Tricia Redeker Hepner is Associate Professor of Anthropology at the University of Tennessee, Chair of the Migration and Refugee Studies Division of the Center for the Study of Social Justice, and Eritrea Country Specialist for Amnesty International and The Fahamu Refugee Network. She can be reached at [email protected]
[Excerpts. Full text available at http://pambazuka.org/en/category/features/72941]
The dictatorship in Eritrea results in large numbers of people feeling the country. But once they enter the international refugee system their problems are only just beginning, writes Tricia Redeker Hepner.
… The Northeast African nation of Eritrea marks its 20th year of independence [in May]. But the festivities will be marred by mourning. President Isayas Afwerki remains firmly entrenched in the seat of power, claiming with alacrity to have foretold the groundswell overtaking his Arab neighbors while banning television coverage of the demonstrations and reorganising the military to pre-empt a possible coup.
Meanwhile, the ripples radiating from the epicenter of his brutal regime are unrelenting, and the fallout has a human face. Tens of thousands of men, women, and children have fled Eritrea in wave after wave of despair. While some of these refugees make it to the shores of Europe and North America, many more do not.
Last week, two boats carrying 400 Eritreans and Ethiopians from Libya to Italy disappeared in the Mediterranean Sea. Fishermen and the Coast Guard are still recovering the bodies … In the Sinai desert, traffickers of multiple nationalities work in tandem with security forces of Egypt and Eritrea to extort, exploit, abuse, torture and execute refugees seeking to cross into Israel, where they are summarily labeled ‘infiltrators’ in a euphemistic avoidance of international responsibilities to protect asylum seekers.
If refugee flows are a sign of political meltdown, then Eritrea is a level seven nuclear disaster. Figures from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees indicate that Eritrea, with a population of only about five million, has been among the top ten refugee producing countries in the world for the better part of the decade. In 2006, it ranked second in the world. In 2007 only Somalis and Iraqis lodged more asylum applications than Eritreans, and in 2008 the numbers of claims filed by Eritreans exceeded those of Iraqis.
The reason? Eritrea spends a whopping 20 per cent of its national budget maintaining a military comprised of forced conscripts whose virtually unpaid labour is reinvested in further militarisation of the society and economy. The Constitution has been on ice since 1997, the promise of multiparty elections remains unfulfilled and even North Korea boasts greater freedom of the press. Civil society institutions and competing political parties exist only in exile.
The list of human rights abuses characterising daily life in Eritrea is longer than the number of international conventions the government has signed. Torture, rape, and execution are commonplace for those who dare put up a fight. The result? Massive flight. “Is there a worse country in the world than this?” mused a Texas lawyer representing one of the hundreds of Eritrean asylum seekers in the US as we reviewed his client’s case.
As an anthropologist who has lived in Eritrea and worked with Eritrean communities in Europe, Africa, and the US for years, I dearly want to defend this country. But the best I can do is to help defend its displaced, abused, and often forgotten citizens. Together with lawyers, Eritrean activists, human rights organisations, UNHCR staff, and colleagues like Magnus Treiber and Barbara Harrell-Bond, I struggle to place the people of this small African country on the global crisis radar. It’s a tall order in these days of perpetual disasters and mind-numbing statistics.
AllAfrica – All the Time
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