Refugee and host communities in Ethiopia marked World Refugee Day on 20 June 2019 with cultural events in camps and in towns. Behind the gatherings, Eritreans were still crossing the border every day. A senior official of the Agency for Refugees and Returnees Affairs said arrivals were running at 250 to 300 people a day. The peace agreement Ethiopia and Eritrea signed in July 2018 had not stopped the flow. Indefinite national service, and raids known as giffas to force young people into it, were still pushing them out.
The official said the rising camp population was a severe strain on the agency and on relief groups. "We have challenges of shelter, core relief items, water and energy alternatives," the official said. Informed sources also said about 5,000 Somali refugees who had been living in Eritrea were trying to reach Ethiopia for safety. More than 400 of them had already arrived at Zalambessa, on the border, where Gulomekeda woreda, a local district in Tigray, was supporting them.
Ethiopia’s open-door policy had it hosting more than 915,000 refugees. Federal law had been changed to offer broader rights, including work permits. Reception centres were still filling faster than shelter and services could expand. The same week, a Brussels summit kept European migration policy in the headlines, and campaigners challenged European Union funding they said propped up abusive systems, including a road project in Eritrea tied to forced labour. In the Horn, the immediate fact was simpler. Young Eritreans were still arriving in the hundreds each day, and the camps did not have enough roofs, water, or fuel for the people already there.
Sources: IDN-InDepthNews