Saturday 19 November 2016

Sharp increase in number of Eritrean refugees and asylum-seekers in Europe, Ethiopia and Sudan

During the first ten months of 2014, the number of asylum-seekers in Europe from Eritrea has nearly tripled. In Ethiopia and Sudan, neighbouring Eritrea, the number of Eritrean refugees has also increased sharply. So far this year, nearly 37,000 Eritreans have sought refuge in Europe, compared to almost 13,000 during the same period last year. Most asylum requests have been lodged in Sweden, Germany, and Switzerland, with the vast majority of the Eritreans having arrived by boat across the Mediterranean. Our office in Italy reports that 22 per cent of the people arriving by boat are Eritrean, a total of nearly 34,000 people this year. This makes Eritreans the second largest group to arrive in Italy by boat, after Syrians. read more

Some recent statistics regarding eritrean refugees and asylum seekers

Eritreans comprised the fourth largest migrant group within the mass influx into Europe in 2015  (following Syrians, Iraqis and Afghans).  The World Post (Huffington Post); United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.

Eritreans comprised the largest group of African refugees in Europe in 2015.  BBC.
Eritreans comprised the largest group of asylum seekers in the U.K. as of August 2015.  United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.
Eritreans comprised the majority of migrants who drowned in the Mediterranean in the first three quarters of 2015.  Wall Street Journal.
Eritreans comprised the largest group of unaccompanied children arriving in Italy in 2015.  Bloomberg, quoting the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the human rights situation in Eritrea.
Country conditions.
Eritrea ranked 7 out of 7 (the lowest ranking) in the 2016 Freedom in the World index.  Freedom House.
Eritrea had the least free press in the world as of 2016 and in many previous years.  Reporters Without Borders.
Eritrea had the second largest army in Africa as of 2016 (following Egypt).  GlobalSecurity.org; World Atlas.
Eritrea ranked 186th out of 188 countries in the 2015 report on the United Nations’ Human Development Index.  United Nations Development Program.
Other Numbers
444,091 – Documented Eritrean refugees and asylum seekers worldwide as of June 2015. United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. 
5,000 — Average monthly refugee flow from Eritrea to all countries in recent months as of June 2015.  United Nations Commission of Inquiry on Human Rights in Eritrea.
3,000 – Average monthly refugee flow from Eritrea to Ethiopia, Fall 2014 – Fall 2015, with monthly peaks rising to 5,000. United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.
2,500 – Unaccompanied (and other parentless) children living in UNHCR refugee camps in northern Ethiopia as of December, 2015. United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.
3,394 —  Unaccompanied Eritrean children arriving in Italy in 2014.  United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in Eritrea.
3,092 — Unaccompanied Eritrean children arriving in Italy in 2015.  United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in Eritrea.
7,009 — Unaccompanied child migrants and refugees (from all countries) arriving in Italy from the Mediterranean from January through May, 2016, comprising 90% of all child migrants and refugees arriving in Italy from the Mediterranean during that period.  The New York Times, quoting International Organization for Migration.
3,233 – Drowned and missing migrants and refugees (from all countries) in the Mediterranean during 2014. International Organization for Migration. 
3,770 – Drowned and missing migrants and refugees (from all countries) in the Mediterranean during 2015. International Organization for Migration.
2,859 — Drowned and missing migrants and refugees (from all countries) in the Mediterranean from January 1, 2016 through June 16, 2016.  International Organization for Migration.
1 out of 23 — The odds of drowning on the Central Mediterranean migration route (e.g., from Libya to Italy) from January through May, 2016.  CNN, quoting United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.
1,000 — Unaccompanied Eritrean children smuggled from Catania, Sicily by criminal organizations (whether consensually for onward migration to northern Europe, or for unknown and more dangerous fates) between 2013 and July 2016.  The Guardian, quoting a local Eritrean cultural mediator.
SOURCE http://eritreanrefugees.org/refugee-stats/

Hundreds of Eritreans’ asylum applications still ‘incorrectly refused’

Hundreds of asylum applications from Eritreans are being incorrectly refused by the government owing to its “unacceptable” policy on accepting refugees from the country, MPs have said.

The home affairs select committee has called on the Home Office to explain why it still has not updated its guidance on asylum seekers from Eritrea, even though it has acknowledged the guidance to be wrong.
The cross-party committee of MPs noted in a report published on Wednesday that 86% of appeals from Eritrean asylum seekers were decided in their favour in the first quarter of 2016.
“This suggests to us that the Home Office country guidance for Eritrea was wrong and applications for asylum from Eritrean nationals have been incorrectly refused,” said the report. “This is the third consecutive report in which we have commented on the approach of the Home Office to asylum-seeking Eritreans. It is unacceptable that the Home Office is still getting so many of its decisions regarding nationals of this country wrong.”
Until it controversially updated its country advice in March 2015, while Theresa May was home secretary, the Home Office advised that it was not safe to return most asylum seekers to Eritrea, which has been described as “the North Korea of Africa”. But the updated Home Office guidance claimed that citizens who left Eritrea without permission – many of them to escape its indefinite military service – would not face persecution if they returned.  READMORE 

Judges deem Eritrea unsafe for migrants’ return as Home Office advice rebutted

The Home Office will alter its much-criticised policy on Eritrean asylum seekers, after a legal ruling found that the majority of those fleeing the country risk persecution or serious harm on returning.
The ruling, which could affect thousands of Eritreans, one of the largest groups to seek asylum in Britain every year, contradicts the government’s existing country guidance, which deems it safe for migrants to return to Eritrea after leaving illegally.

Earlier this year, a report by MPs found hundreds of asylum applications from Eritreans are being incorrectly refused, owing to what was described as the government’s “unacceptable” policy on accepting refugees from the country. The July report by the home affairs select committee found that, in the first quarter of 2016, 86% of appeals by Eritrean asylum seekers were decided in their favour.READMORE

Deported to persecution: The Home Office’s Eritrean programme

By Philip Kleinfeld
Monday, 11 April 2016
It was roughly twelve months after 31-year-old Gebre Berhane (not his real name) escaped Eritrea that the letter came through from the Home Office. He’d already lost 13 years of his life to forced military service and faced the threat of a regime which he says kidnapped his father turning on him. Berhane was sure his request for asylum would be accepted and his nightmare would come to an end.
“The Eritrean government were looking for me because they believed I was contacting foreigners,” he says, explaining the case he put to the British authorities. “In my extra time I was supplying vegetables to a big company which made them suspicious. When we heard that they were looking for me, I fled. It’s been 15 years since my father was taken by the government. My mum said: ‘I don’t want to lose you too, go away from this country’.”

But Berhane’s story wasn’t good enough for the Home Office, at least not at the first time of asking. Last summer, after months waiting for an interview, his asylum claim was rejected. The days he’d spent trapped in a migrant jail in Libya, the hours rocking on a packed boat to Sicily, and the month hopping from truck to truck in Calais  – all in the hope of reaching England – appeared to have come to nothing. “Something came into my mind,” he says, recalling how he felt after reading the rejection. “If they are planning to take me back home I am planning to make suicide. Imagine you have come all the way and risked everything and they take you back to the Eritrean government – our enemy.” SOURCE http://www.politics.co.uk/comment-analysis/2016/04/11/deported-to-persecution-the-home-office-s-eritrean-programme

Home Office Policy Towards Eritrean Asylum Seekers – Solution or Confusion?

By Tesfahannes Beyene

Britain’s policy towards Eritrean asylum seekers and Economic migrants is confused to say the least. The answer is simple; there is no any coherent policy towards Eritreans as many of those who claim to be Eritreans are in fact Ethiopians. The strange thing is that Britain’s Home Office (the office of domestic affairs) has never bothered to distinguish Eritreans from Ethiopians.
There are two groups of Ethiopians who are claiming to be Eritreans: the Amharic speaking from Central Ethiopia and the Tigrinya speaking (Tigreans) from Northern Ethiopia who live near the Eritrean border. But the Tigrina spoken in Ethiopia’s Tigrai region is different in accent from that spoken in modern Eritrea. Only native Eritreans can distinguish if any Tigrina speaker is from Eritrea or Ethiopia. Amharic speakers are clearly not Eritreans; Amharic is not spoken in any part of Eritrea. It does not exist in the Eritrean curriculum any more (as it did before 1991, during the Ethiopian occupation) and every Eritrean born after 91 speaks Tigrina one of the main languages in Eritrea.
The British Ambassador in Eritrea knows very well Amharic is no longer spoken in Eritrea. The Ambassador also knows the type of Tigrina spoken in Northern Ethiopia, so why are British Officials and the Home Office, classifying Amharic speaking Ethiopians and those from North Ethiopia classified as “Eritreans” and granting them asylum. It is for these reasons that many Ethiopians are exploiting the asylum situation to the maximum by memorizing Eritrean history, currency, geography, political situation and telling the world they want to avoid the National service when it has nothing to do with them. Some Ethiopians even claimed to be half Eritrean and half Ethiopian born in Campo Sudan or the Eritrean port city of Assab – it is all fiction as they are Ethiopians not Eritreans. readmore

Monday 14 November 2016

Poetry 3, Iney Manegh?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G20VWMG8VzY&feature=share