ICERAS

By Daniel Salazar August 3, 2023

Eritrean refugees and asylum seekers continue to be exposed to horrific human rights violations, such as kidnappings and forced disappearances. They cannot safely return to their home country, which features indefinite mandatory military conscription among other forms of repression. They cannot find safety and security in nearby countries, between targeted violence and harassment by security forces to the threat of forced returns and deportations to Eritrea. They cannot find protection from those tasked to provide it in and around camps established by the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR).

These grave patterns should not be overlooked and must be addressed by host countries and the international community. State authorities and UNHCR must be held accountable for the systematic failures of recent years to protect Eritrean refugees and asylum seekers from forced disappearances, kidnappings, and other breakdowns in protection.

This report provides updates on the situation of Eritrean refugees and asylum seekers in three host countries: Ethiopia, Sudan, and Egypt. It highlights the vulnerabilities and exposure to human rights violations that these populations face on an ongoing basis and from new sources of insecurity, such as the spiraling conflict gripping Sudan.

To meet the protection needs of Eritrean refugees and asylum seekers, the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants (USCRI) recommends neighboring country commitments for protection against non-refoulement, accountability for the forced disappearances of Eritrean refugees, expanded access to asylum in Ethiopia, and increased third-country resettlement, including through U.S. refugee admissions.

Ethiopia

On July 13, a group of United Nations (UN) experts condemned Ethiopia’s “summary expulsion of hundreds of Eritreans” at the end of June 2023. The experts noted several cases of family separation following these mass deportations to Ethiopia, including parents being forced back to Eritrea and children left behind in Ethiopia. “There is no information on the fate or whereabouts of those deported since their return to Eritrea,” the experts wrote.

The report adds to the overwhelming amount of evidence of grave patterns of human rights violations committed against forcibly returned Eritreans in northern Ethiopia, including torture, ill treatment, enforced disappearance, trafficking, and arbitrary detention. Shortly after the onset of the war in northern Ethiopia in November 2020, thousands of Eritrean refugees were forcibly disappeared or returned to Eritrea with little information as to their fate.

The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) could not access the northern Tigray camps of Hitsats and Shimelba from November 2020 to March 2021—returning only to find the camps deserted and destroyed. Some Eritrean refugees who lived there before the Tigray conflict remain unaccounted for to this day. Contemporaneous investigations by organizations such as Human Rights Watch shed some light on the human rights abuses that likely occurred in the Hitsats and Shimelba camps. But the full scale of violations remains untallied and not sufficiently addressed by UNHCR or federal and regional authorities in Ethiopia.

The UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Eritrea assesses that the cessation of hostilities in Tigray has led to a relative improvement in the condition and security of Eritrean asylum seekers and refugees. However, needs remain high for both Tigrayans and Eritrean refugees residing in Tigray— particularly after a pause in U.S. and international food aid because of diverted assistance. “Of note, the peace agreement does not contain any specific provisions about the protection of Eritrean refugees, whether in Tigray or in other regions of Ethiopia,” the Special Rapporteur wrote in his May report, calling on Ethiopian federal authorities to provide Eritrean populations with “protection against refoulement, access to humanitarian assistance and basic services, and redress and reparation for losses that they have incurred in the camps during the armed conflict in Tigray.” readmore