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Africa Horn | ||
Eritreans fleeing authoritarian regime- Aid agencies | ||
2007-09-02 | ||
(SomaliNet) Foreign aid groups have said a growing number of Eritreans are fleeing their authoritarian regime and joining in exile a previous generation who sought refuge from a long and deadly freedom war against Ethiopia. A news source said the young Red Sea state - which obtained its independence in 1993 - has an estimated population of 4.2 million but an estimated 850 000 Eritreans have sought refuge abroad. One of the main destinations for those Eritreans who manage to slip through the regime's tight net is
The UNHCR pointed out that while much international attention was given to the crisis in Sudan's war-ravaged western Darfur region, little was being said about Eritrean refugees flocking into Sudan, in what it described as "one of the world's most protracted refugee situations." "Spurred by the rigours and abuses of the national service system, draft-age Eritreans and high school seniors have been fleeing the country in the thousands over the past five years or have gone into hiding," Human Rights Watch said in a report released in January. According to the World Bank, large Eritrean communities are also found in Ethiopia, Saudi Arabia, the United States, Italy, Britain, Germany, Canada, Sweden and Australia. The UNHCR in Ethiopia said it receives between 400 and 500 new demands every month from Eritrean asylum seekers. In Uganda, the flux of refugees is also intensifying. The UNHCR's spokesperson in the Ugandan capital Kampala, Roberta Russo, said while 425 Eritreans had sought asylum there in 2006, 691 had sought asylum in the first six months of 2007 alone . The Eritrean authorities have minimised the scale of the phenomenon.
Hundreds of thousands of Eritreans had already fled their country during the 30-year war with Ethiopia that kicked off in 1961. Eritrea remains locked in a bitter border dispute with Ethiopia and the United Nations has warned of the potential for renewed fighting. | ||
Posted by:Steve White |