(23 April 2015) Human Rights Concern Eritrea (HRCE) today condemned the inaction by the EU in the face of steeply rising numbers of refugees drowning while seeking to cross the Mediterranean.
Elsa Chyrum, Director of HRCE, today voiced her deep sorrow at the recent loss of life in the string of refugee boat disasters in the Mediterranean and urged European authorities to be honest and robust in their response to the growing humanitarian crisis. She said “unfortunately I have little confidence in the EU to adequately tackle this crisis, including its root causes. We saw plenty of hand-wringing after the Lampedusa disaster in 2013 when over 360 Eritreans and Somalis perished in similar circumstances, but little subsequent action. Thousands more have died since then.”
She added “while it is important that there are efforts to tackle the traffickers who are profiteering from this crisis, there is scant assurance that European authorities are prepared to tackle root causes of the refugee flow across the Mediterranean, namely the gross and systematic violations of human rights in the refugees’ countries of origin, particularly Eritrea. People from many nations are risking their lives trying to get to Europe, but Eritreans are risking their lives in significantly disproportionate numbers to those of most other nationalities.”
It has been revealed by the United Nations that at least 350 of the 850 people who perished in a boat off the coast of Libya on Saturday night were Eritrean. The Guardian has also published figures of the country of origin of those arriving by boat into Italy in 2014 where Eritreans were only marginally outnumbered by those from Syria, a country ravaged by a brutal civil war.
Ms Chyrum argued that the EU needed to seek change in Asmara, specifically in the repression of Eritreans by its government. She said “It is scandalous that the EU’s approach to solving the Eritrean problem is to send further development aid to the country, when we know that money is likely used to prop up the regime rather than support the people. Furthermore Eritrea itself must be called to account for its terrible treatment of its own people, to end indefinite national service, and ease the day-to-day trauma of Eritreans. Eritrea’s President Isaias Afewerki must make immediate and substantial reforms to bring greater freedoms for Eritreans or step aside to allow others to bring about such change.”
