One of the most important outcomes of the January 9 London conference of Citizens for Democratic Rights in Eritrea, CDRiE, has been the heightened readiness to tackle the unfolding Eritrean refugee catastrophe. CDRiE rose to the challenge and decided to form a new Eritrean relief and recovery agency. It is hoped that the proposed agency will adopt effective methods in securing donations of such items as food, clothing and medicines to be delivered without delay to refugees stranded in Eritrea’s neighboring countries.

CDRiE member Petros Tesfagiorgis who is spearheading the disaster response plan is former head of the Eritrean Relief Association which for many years had assisted Eritrean refugees fleeing Ethiopian oppression in the 70s and 80s. The current refugee situation under the brutal dictatorship in Asmara is said to be more debilitating and more lethal than anything Eritreans have experienced.

The new agency is to be registered with the City of London and plans to include prominent Britons as members of its supervisory board, according to Petros. He says the agency is being set up only for humanitarian purposes and will not be affiliated to any political or ideological group or party.

The proposed agency will be interacting closely with local (British) and international NGOs such as Oxfam as well as the UNHCR. It will focus on distribution of emergency relief aid to new arrivals in Ethiopia and Sudan. The agency will also be involved with long-term rehabilitation projects for Eritrean refugees in those two countries. To date, there are over 100-thousand Eritrean refugees in the Sudan alone. The agency will also be working closely with already existing human rights and humanitarian agencies.

The plan to form a new London based relief and recovery agency follows research and needs assessment which also took into account a recent mission by CDRiE member Senait Yohannes (Canada) to Mai Aini which is one of four of Eritrean refugee camps in Ethiopia. Senait herself is involved with refugee rights advocacy work in Canada.

The following is a summary of Senait’s field report:

“Ethiopia is hosting more than 40,000 Eritrean refugees, mainly in two camps – Shimelba and Mai Aini camps in Tigray region, and two smaller camps in the Afar region. According to the Administration for Refugee and Returnee Affairs (ARRA), each month on average 1,000 Eritrean refugees cross the border. Mai Aini camp is almost full to capacity and ARRA is looking into opening a third camp in the area.

My visit to Mai Aini was a very difficult experience. The camp is new and it therefore lacks basic facilities such as school, library, and recreational facilities to distract refugees from their unbearable life. I arrived during their monthly ration and I was amazed on how little food they survive on. Each individual receives a monthly ration of only 16kg of wheat, 900ml of cooking oil, 1.5kg of Fava beans or chick peas, 1.5kg of Fafa, 400g of sugar and half a cup of salt. That is it! With no pocket money, refugees have to sell half of their wheat to cover grinding cost at the mill. How are they expected to cook this meager monthly ration?

Collection of fire wood has become a topic of contention with the locals. Deforestation is very evident in and around the camp. A representative of the women’s association in the camp described incidents of locals violating female refugees while out to collect wood. Consequently women become involuntarily dependent on the male population of the camp. Female refugees face the same predicament when it comes to building their own shelters. UNHCR does not provide these refugees with shelter when they enter the camp. Each refugee is responsible to build their own shelter. Since female refugees find it impossible to build their own shelter, they opt to share a room with few unrelated male occupants. This living arrangement has led to many undesired and sad consequences for all involved.

Malnourished, weak, desperate and with no hope, many refugees suffer from mental health and other health issues. I visited a room full of sick refugees in Mai Aini. Health care providers expressed the lack of adequate, basic equipments and drugs. A camp committee chairperson put it this way: ‘Sometimes the generator fails while a woman is in labor in our clinic and there is nothing we can do about it. It is beyond desperation here.’ Most refugees suffer from malaria, TB, eye infection, HIV/AIDS, STD, diarrhea and other malnutrition related diseases. The most alarming disease at the moment is mental health. Untreated depression and anxiety disorder are causing full blown psychotic episodes in the camp, putting the sick and everybody else at risk. A camp leader was gravely concerned about one mentally unstable refugee who has been attacking people. So far, he has attacked 11 people, and I am afraid that he will seriously hurt someone or someone is going to hurt him in self-defense.

The recent resettlement of 6,000 Eritrean refugees in the US has given the refugees in Shimelba Camp a long overdue semblance of hope. Two thousand more were expected to follow before the end of 2009. This program, however noble, is leaving the most vulnerable refugees behind. Mostly the healthy and the capable individuals are given settlement opportunity first. This has created unintended dilemma to those underage, the sick, disabled and the elderly refugees who have come to Shimelba. An institutional support system is crucially needed to meet the needs of the most vulnerable in the camp.

The challenges are too many to list. However, based on my interviews with camp protection officers, health providers and the refugees themselves, I have made the following list of urgently needed items. It is not necessarily in priority order.

Food: Anything to supplement the refugees’ meager monthly food ration including berbere (pepper), sugar, salt and baby formula.

Drugs: For malaria, TB, epilepsy, diabetes, eye diseases/infections, STD, HIV/AIDS

Clothing: Blankets, mosquito nets, shoes, clothes, soap and underwear (particularly brass and sanitary pads for the female population of the camp)

Other needed items: Aluminum roofs, grain mills, generators, school and school supplies (both for regular and vocational), computers, library, jerry-cans, kitchen utensils, firewood, recreation center (especially for Mai Aini Camp), TV (on my visit, their only Television was broken for three months), soccer balls, non-electronic games, board games, etc.”

For more information please contact:

Petros Tesfagiorgis at \n ptesfa58@yahoo.co.uk This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it ; Senait Yohannes at \n senait_yohannes@hotmail.com This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it : or \n CDRiEritrea@googlemail.com This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it