To: The Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques

King Abdalla Bib Abdulaziz Ale Saud, May God protect him

Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

Your Majesty,

Re: Eritreans who are on their way to be deported to their country

As Eritreans, whose country is related to the beloved Kingdom of Saudi Arabia by geographical, historical, cultural and social proximity,   we proudly say that we hold you with high esteem and that you are very close to the hearts of the Eritrean people whom you supported during the long national struggle for the Eritrean independence, covering the period from early 1960s to early 1990s. At the same time, we admire your role in promoting peace, stability and interfaith dialogue at regional and international levels, showing very noble positions with which your great name is always associated.

Eritreans are among the first foreign workers who lived in the Kingdom for a long time. The number of Eritreans increased by many folds after the mid-1970s to the extent that Eritreans became a distinct community in the Kingdom.  During that period, a great number of Eritreans entered the Kingdom and settled among your great people, protected and supported by the successive Saudi governments.  As a result of that, tens of thousands of Eritreans became assimilated into the Saudi society more than any other working force coming from outside, built families there and raised kids who were born and brought up in the Kingdom.

Nevertheless, as you are aware, the situation in independent Eritrea took a very unfavorable direction, which we as Eritrean people had ruled out as a possibility, in the same way our great neighbors and the international community, who stood by our side during our national struggle did, until we faced a bizarre reality which gradually grew into a stage by which the country literally became second North Korea. To sum up the reality in Eritrea: there is no rule of law and justice, there are more prisons than schools, indefinite military conscription and forced labour is applicable even to girls whose pride and dignity are openly and systematically

violated, human rights abuse have reached a level unheard of in this modern world except in North Korea. This is to mention a few.

Due to the precarious situation precisely described above, the youth are fleeing the country in thousands a day across the Sudanese and Ethiopian borders, braving the real and clear danger of falling prey into the hands of human traffickers, who take them to Sinai where their kidneys and other body organs are harvested. Furthermore, Eritrea became a country that destabilizes its neighbours by supporting terrorist groups in the region.

The facts outlined above, by way of controlling the size of this letter, are well-documented by the United Nations and the international community in whose name the UN Security Council imposed Sanctions on Eritrea in December 2009 for defying the council’s demands to remove its troops from the invaded territory in neighbouring Djibouti and stop providing political, financial, and logistical support to armed insurgents in Somalia. The UN also appointed a Special Rapporteur on the human rights situation in Eritrea in July 2012 and was recently on tour in the region, as you are well-aware.

We are certain that Your Majesty will, as always, use your wisdom and enlightened leadership to look into the problems related to Eritreans who are on their way to be deported to their country because of the situation in which their country currently lives and which the international community is daily and closely monitoring. Therefore, we urge Your Majesty to intervene and take the necessary measures that stops the deportation of Eritreans to a country that will receive them with open prisons, drawn swords, indefinite military conscription and forced labour, programs of human degradation, religious intolerance, humiliation and total disregard to the dignity and respect of women who were well-protected by your laws, virtues, traditions and culture.

We ask the Almighty God to help Your Majesty in your official duties, as a great reformer, and noble endeavours we are accustomed to hear, as contemporaries, in your regional and international roles. At the same time, we ask the Almighty God to reward Your Majesty generously for all the good work you do by way of reflecting the positive Saudi virtues.

Thank you for your kind attention and time. God bless you and your great country.

Yours respectfully,

Elizabeth Chyrum

Director,

Human Rights Concern Eritrea

Cc: HRH Prince Mohammed bin Nawaf Al Saud, Ambassador of Saudi Arabia to the United Kingdom and Ireland.

H.E Mr. Abdulwahab Abdulsalam Attar, Ambassador of Saudi Arabia to the United Nations in Geneva