To the Urgent Attention of:
Mr. Barham Salih (United Nation High Commissioner for Refugees)
Ms. Teyiba Hassen (Director General of the Ethiopian Federal Refugees and Returnees Service) (RRS)
Ms. Aissatou M. Ndiaye (UNHCR’s Representative in Ethiopia)
Cc:
Mr. David Karp (Assistant Representative Protection, UNHCR -Ethiopia)
Dr. Mohamed Abdelsalam Babiker (Special Rapporteur for the situation of human rights in Eritrea)
Dear Mr. Salih, Ms. Hassen, and Ms. Ndiaye,
Re: Afar Region: Urgent Protection and Relocation Appeal for Eritrean Refugees.
Human Rights Concern–Eritrea (HRCE) writes to express its grave concern for Eritrean refugees living in refugee camps and surrounding communities in Ethiopia’s Afar region as armed conflict again spreads across northern Ethiopia.
Available official and operational information identifies Aysaita Refugee Camp, Barahle Refugee Camp and Serdo Refugee Site as hosting Eritrean refugees under the responsibility of the Refugees and Returnees Service (RRS) and the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR).
The fighting presently affecting Afar reportedly includes heavy artillery and operations around Erebti, Yallo and other areas bordering Tigray. Approximately 150,000 people are reported to have been displaced in Afar. There are also serious but not yet independently verified reports alleging the presence of Eritrean forces inside the region. This rapidly changing security environment places Eritrean refugees at considerable risk.
Lessons from the previous conflict
These concerns are not hypothetical. In February 2022, fighting reached Barahle Refugee Camp. UNHCR reported that at least five refugees were killed, several women were abducted, families were separated and thousands were forced to flee.
More than 4,000 refugees reached Semera, approximately 10,000 were reportedly sheltering in Afdera, and others were scattered across additional locations. Serdo was subsequently prepared as a temporary relocation site.
Refugees who endured those events must not be left exposed to the same dangers again.
Present protection risks
The escalation may expose Eritrean refugees to:
- Direct attack, shelling and crossfire;
- Renewed displacement and separation of families;
- Abduction, forced recruitment, arbitrary detention or disappearance;
- Sexual and gender-based violence;
- Trafficking and exploitation during uncoordinated flight;
- Destruction or loss of identity and refugee-registration documents;
- Interruption of food, water, healthcare, shelter and communications;
- Obstruction of humanitarian access;
- Hostility or retaliation based on perceived political or ethnic affiliation; and,
- Forced return to Eritrea, contrary to the principle of non-refoulement.
Refugees may be endangered whichever armed actor controls the surrounding territory. Their camps and settlements must retain their civilian and humanitarian character and must not be entered, occupied or used by armed forces or groups.
Urgent requests
HRCE respectfully urges UNHCR and RRS to take the following measures without delay:
- Conduct an immediate joint security and protection assessment of Aysaita, Barahle and Serdo, as well as Eritrean refugees living in surrounding communities.
- Establish the present location and number of refugees at each site, identify anyone missing or displaced and create mechanisms for restoring family contact.
- Maintain a permanent protection presence, emergency communication channels and clearly identified safe assembly points at every refugee location.
- Secure humanitarian access and emergency stocks of food, drinking water, medicines, fuel, shelter materials and essential relief supplies.
- Prevent armed personnel, weapons, recruitment and military activity from entering or operating within refugee sites.
- Prioritise children, women at risk, older people, persons with disabilities, survivors of violence and people requiring urgent medical treatment.
- Prepare transport and safe evacuation routes before access roads are closed or fighting reaches the camps.
- If any location cannot be protected, organise prompt, voluntary and properly coordinated relocation to a genuinely safe area, sufficiently distant from active hostilities and international borders.
- Ensure that any relocation preserves family unity, legal status and documentation and provides adequate shelter, food, healthcare, education, sanitation and protection.
- Obtain clear guarantees from all parties that no refugee will be forcibly returned to Eritrea, detained without lawful grounds or subjected to retaliation.
- Provide refugees with regular and reliable information in languages they understand, including information about security conditions, evacuation arrangements and available assistance.
HRCE recognises that relocation carries its own risks. It must therefore be voluntary, informed, dignified and based on an independent security assessment. Refugees should not merely be transferred from one insecure or inadequately serviced location to another.
We respectfully request an urgent public update from UNHCR and RRS confirming:
- Which Eritrean refugee sites in Afar remain operational;
- The approximate population presently accounted for at each location;
- Whether humanitarian personnel can safely reach them;
- What emergency protection and evacuation arrangements have been established; and,
- Whether any refugees have already been displaced, injured, abducted or reported missing.
We thank you for your urgent attention to this matter and look forward to your prompt response and action.
The international protection of these refugees cannot wait until another camp is attacked. Preventive action must be taken while safe access and organised relocation remain possible.
Yours sincerely,
Elizabeth Chyrum
Director
Human Rights Concern–Eritrea (HRCE)
eritrea.facts@gmail.com
