Mereja Forum

[Mesob]

(Some of the articles Prof Yebio did to educate us and the Horn region )
THE ERITREAN REFUGEES AND HUMAN TRAFFICKING

THE ERITREAN REFUGEES AND HUMAN TRAFFICKING

Yebio Woldemariam, Adjunct Professor, York College, of [ deleted ]

On Tuesday the 5th of March, 2013 a panel discussion on Eritrean refugees was held at Simmons College in which the author participated and submitted the paper titled “ Eritrean Refugees and Human Trafficking”

Introduction
Eritrea is one of the few countries in the world that begun producing refugees as early as late 1960s. Perhaps it is one of the earliest conflict prone areas in Africa where its citizens were forced to flee their home for safe sanctuary in the Sudan. Sadly, the earliest victims of this involuntary exodus were Muslim pastoralist in whose region the conflict begun. Therefore, massive refugee influx is not a new phenomenon to this troubled land because at the height of the civil war that pitted the Ethiopian army with the Eritrean Liberation Fronts for about three decades, an estimated 350,000 were dislocated from their homes and has remained sheltered in the Sudan and elsewhere for a long period of time. What makes the refugee problem in Eritrea more complex today is that refugees are young, mobile and to some extent educated, escaping the harsh rule of their own government. Unlike their predecessors decades ago who were mostly rural/pastoral and unskilled/semi-skilled workers whose worldly outlook is limited and somewhat confined to their immediate environment, the new generation of refugees are anxious and with intense urge to move. Being part of the millennium generation they are no more held back by traditional norm and social morass and are intolerant to unreasonable interference in their lives by aging freedom fighters at the helm of the government.

Global Refugee Perspective
According to UNHCR world refugee population in 2011 was estimated at 15.4 million of which 80 percent are from the developing world. This figure does not include those of Syria and the Sahel region of Africa were violent conflict is going unabated. Moreover an additional 43.7 million people are found displaced within the political boundary of the conflict areas . Almost all refugees live in squalor conditions and yearn for the day they return home. The majority, however, stay indefinitely in their place of refuge some like the Palestinians, the Afghans and the Eritreans for more than 30 years. The average time that a refugee returns home according to UNHCR is now 5 years or more. Since the 1970s world refugee population has quintupled causing concern for UN agencies in particular and the developed world in general. The cause of cross border movement by people is of course conflict among nation states and instability within the state. Many of the nations in Africa have little conflict resolving mechanism to avert civil upheaval fueled by narrow sub-national interest, ethnic rivalry and religious intolerance.

Eritrean Refugees:chronic problem
The war for Eritrea’s independence begun in the lowlands mainly inhabited by Muslims and it was led by a Muslim vanguard movement with discernible pan-Arabic influence. Given the circumstance, it was taken for grant and perhaps fair play for the ancient Christian nation of Ethiopia to deal with Muslim insurgency with impunity, thus causing, huge numbers of people to run for their lives. The state of emergency declared in 1970 after the ambush and the killing of an Ethiopian Army general responsible for conducting the war, things turned from bad to worst. Between this incident and the eruption of the 1974 popular revolution in Ethiopia, hundreds of thousands of lowland Eritreans became homeless. But as the war for Eritrea’s independence intensified other part of the society namely the Abyssinians in the plateau were dragged into joining the war against Ethiopia adding more to the refugee population. When the war ended and The Eritrean Popular Liberation Front (EPLF) entered Asmara triumphantly, there were about half a million of refugees, the majority of whom were Muslims who remained in the Sudan since the start of the conflict. Effort to bring them to Eritrea with the help of UNHCR failed and many stayed in the Sudan, few acquiring Sudanese citizenship but many staying as undocumented immigrants. The opposition in particular the Muslims blame the EPLF led government for failing to negotiate with the agency in good faith. It should be noted here, that the EPLF has been perceived as Christian/Abyssinian bastion by the Muslims while some within opposition view it as an antithesis of ELF which was regard as an Islamic and feudal.

The Millennium Refugees
The new wave of refugees begun to arrive in the Sudan and Ethiopia immediately after the Ethio-Eritrean war of 1998-2000 ended. It should be noted here that the core of the Eritrean army were made up of National Service (NS) recruited from schools, work places and the rural areas whose age ranging from 18 to 40 years. The army conscription was mandated by the 1995 decree which gave the government the power to recruit young people to serve in the army for 18 months . Theoretically, these servicemen and women are supposed to be discharged after the completion of their service. But, as the crisis dragged and the no war no peace situation with Ethiopia continued, the young were forced to stay in the military service longer than the law permitted. Some recruits from the Fifth Round of conscription had already served for nearly 4 years by the time the Peace Agreement was signed in Algiers in 2000. Sadly enough neither the Peace Agreement nor the border arbitration ruling by the International Court in Hague relieved the 200,000 youth from the dredge of army life. To the dismay of many well meaning Eritreans including higher officials of the government the youth remained mobilized decade after the hostility ended. The government on the pretext that Ethiopia is not up to good and may one day invade Eritrea choose vigilance instead of rapprochement, hostility in place of peace, all at the expense of the youth. That appeared to be the main reason why it decided to keep the young recruits indefinitely. Based on UNHCR statistics Eritrea boasts some 266,162 refugee next to Somalia .There are about 36,000 more in Israel whose status is classified as ‘infiltrators’ denied the protection they deserve in accordance to the 1951 Genève Convention. Quoting the UNHCR data sources, the Wall Street Journal places Eritrea the ninth in the top 10 source countries of refugees

It was this hopelessness coupled with desperation that drove the young, most of whom school aged and some college bound to leave Eritrea when ever opportunity avails itself. When leaving the country clandestinely they run the risk of being shot at by the army to prevent their escape to Ethiopia and the Sudan. Few, who can afford to pay exorbitant price for freedom, are helped by smugglers working in cahoots with army officials. Escaping Eritrea is one of the many phases that the young has to undergo to achieve freedom, however. In their journey through the Nile valley to Israel or Europe most refugees pass through a grueling experience that we in the West would never dream exists. I shall briefly deal with that in a short while later.

... https://www.asmarino.com/articles/1674- ... rafficking

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[Cigar]

You filthy agame stop talking about an article of 2013 when your coward woyane coordinating with its master was trying hard to kneel Eritrea.
This is almost 2021 now. Talk a out current situations and refugees.
Since the peace between the two countries was signed in 2018 there is not a single Eritrean refugee.
Karma is a bi*tch and the over 30 thousand refugees who are suffering miserable treatments only in Yemen and Saudis are your filthy agames. And your agames miseries is not limited to refugee status. Inside tigray almost all you dirty agames are in duress.
And we are loving it and trust me Eritreans lives is only going to get better while you agames are going in the holes PMAA and PIA dug for you.

[( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)]

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