ICERAS

Following the 2018 peace agreement between Ethiopia and Eritrea more than 60,000 Eritrean refugees arrived in Ethiopia. Thousands continue to arrive every month. They live under harsh conditions that call for humanitarian action.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

■ Vulnerable Eritrean refugees in Ethiopia, women, elderly, disabled, and children need urgent humanitarian assistance, including shelters, food, water, sanitation, energy, and health care.

■ Funds are needed for UNHCR, partner organizations, and ARRA to address continuous refugee arrivals in Ethiopia and the challenges posed by COVID-19.

■ Donor countries should put pressure on Ethiopia to reintroduce prima facie recognition and allow access to protection, while resettlement quotas abroad should be increased.

■ Humanitarian support and emergency shelters should be provided in transit locations for smuggled and trafficked Eritreans in need of urgent protection.

In July 2018, the governments of Ethiopia and Eritrea signed the Joint Declaration of Peace and Friendship, ending a 20-year standoff. Both governments pulled back their armies from one of the world’s most militarized border zones, officially ending hostilities. Phone lines reopened, families reunited, and people in both countries celebrated the hopeful development.

Since the peace agreement, however, the early optimism has been hampered by domestic challenges in both countries. Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed of Ethiopia is preoccupied with internal instability and disputes exacerbated by the return to Ethiopia of ethno-nationalist opposition leaders and their armed groups from abroad. On his part, President Isaias Afwerki of Eritrea is focused on domestic security and the possible spillover from the unrest in Ethiopia.

Another obstacle is that the Ethiopian Tigray Region, which borders with Eritrea, has not actively supported and engaged in the peace deal due to its uneasy relations with the federal government in Addis Ababa and the Eritrean regime in Asmara. The peace deal may thus be effective on a state level but it has not yet benefitted ordinary people in the affected border regions.

Tensions between refugees and host communities
Since the underlying problems in Eritrea, such as open-ended military services, and desperate socioeconomic and political conditions, have not yet improved the open borders initially intensified mass flights of Eritreans to Ethiopia. According to UNHCR, about 1,500 Eritreans fled out of the country daily inthe months following the agreement. A few months later, the borders closed again on the Eritrean side. Refugee flights, however, have continued and remain considerable today. In the first quarter of 2020, about 9,463 new asylum seekers from Eritrea have sought refuge in Ethiopia, children accounting for nearly one third. READMORE