ERITREA: Human Rights Concern- Eritrea Calls for Safety of Refugees in Eritrea
Sr. Jecinter Antoinette Okoth, FSSA
An organization dedicated to the promotion and protection of human rights of Eritreans in their country and all over the world, has called on various actors to protect and care for Eritrean refugees who are being “attacked” in the camps.
In a report by the Human Rights Concern – Eritrea (HRCE) published on Wednesday, March 3, the independent non-profit making organization has asked the Ethiopian government and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to “Provide protection to the Eritrean refugees in Mai Aini and Adi Harush refugee camps urgently, and ensure no further harm can come to the inhabitants.”
“The international community must put pressure on the government of Ethiopia to guarantee the safety of all refugees in its territories, both in Tigray and in the rest of Ethiopia,” the UK-based organization who protects Human Rights through advocacy, lobbying, education, research and documentation, in order to safeguard the human rights of all Eritreans added in their report
The call for safety of refugees come few days after the report disclosed brutal militias attack at Mai Aini refugee camp in northern Ethiopia which hosts thousands of refugees from neighboring Eritrea.
According to the report, “armed men entered in Mai Aini refugee camp in Tigray and terrorized the refugees with gunshots” on Sunday, February 27, and “the militia harassed, attacked, robbed, and injured the refugees.”
The HRCE noted that “one refugee’s fingers were chopped off with an axe and their belongings such as mobiles phones and clothes were stolen.” Besides, their assailants went from door to door, forcing refugees to open their doors, and using force to enter when refugees refused to open the doors.
During the attack that took almost four hours from 1: 20 a.m. the armed men threatened to shoot the refugees and physically harmed others.
“The refugees are extremely worried and fear for their lives. The camps are clearly not safe, as no constant protection is being provided by the Ethiopian authorities,” the HRCE highlighted in their Wednesday report.
Appealing further for safety of the refugees, the organization that believes that all human beings are equal regardless of race, religion, gender and political affiliation and strives for a peaceful Eritrea where fundamental human rights are respected, underscored the significance of international pressure from the United Nations (UN) and other bodies such as the African Union (AU), to be “exerted on the government of Eritrea to withdraw all its military forces from Tigray immediately.”
Additionally, “an independent and impartial international investigation into crimes committed in Tigray by all forces must be launched without delay,” the report indicates.
The HRCE authorities explained in their message that the refugees could not get help during the attack despite their efforts to reach the Federal Ethiopian Police for help which was in vain though the “police arrived after the assailants had left.”
The Human Rights body whose objective among others is “To put pressure on the Eritrean Government to adopt and implement the Constitution in order to safeguard the human rights of Eritreans as guaranteed in the constitution,” noted that “Eritrean armed forces have been in Tigray since the start of the conflict, and have been involved in some horrific violations, including massacres of hundreds of defenseless civilians and the enforced mass deportation at gunpoint of up to 20,000 Eritrean refugees from the now destroyed Shimelba and Hitsats Refugee camps to the very country they fled from.”
HRCE further noted that Eritrean refugees who were “forced” to return to their country disclosed that “they were forced to sign a document stating they were voluntarily repatriated to Eritrea.”
