Sudan has been hosting thousands of Eritreans refugees since the 1960s.  Sudanese hospitality is recounted fondly by generations of Eritreans.  But now, a new generation of Eritrean refugees has a different story to tell—and it is not flattering to the Sudanese people. But nobody is listening: not the Sudanese government, nor the Eritrean regime, nor even the UNHCR.   

They arrive by the hundreds each week—they are Eritreans in their 20s trying to avoid the mandatory and seemingly endless conscription in their homeland.  When they cross the border, they will be arrested by Sudanese border patrol and detained in the refugee camps which have hosted thousands of Eritreans since the 1960s.

But before they arrive at the refugee camps, they will stop by at the detention centers. Here, they will be asked how much money they have, if they have a mobile phone or an address book that shows they have relatives abroad.  They are dispossessed of their money and directed to call their family members abroad and ask them to send money.

From the detention centers, they will be driven to Wed Sherifey refugee camp.  There, the authorities will ask them to pay a fee (the equivalent of $3 USD) to have their pictures taken.  If they don’t have the money, and most won’t, they will be dumped in a shack at transit camp or deported back to Eritrea.

If they do have the money to pay for the pictures, they are transported to Camp 26, where they will be asked to pay $10 USD to receive a refugee ID card.

The Transit Camps

The transit camps are straw shacks, with no fixtures or furniture to speak of. Ten refugees are housed per shack.  They sleep on the ground with no mats or covers.  They are given two meals per day, each consisting of three injeras (local bread.)  Water is equally rare: their allotment is a barrel every other day.  If they run out, they have to buy their own—which is expensive and scarce.

The only way out is to escape to nearby villages and continue the trek in the direction of either Port Sudan or Khartoum.  But that, too, has its risks.  Eritreans who are arrested in the streets of Kassala can be detained even if they venture out to buy groceries. Eritrean family members will raise the bail money, about $100 USD, to get them out of jail.

The Refugee Camps

Due to the influx of refugees, Wed Sherifey camp is now full.  The Shejerab camp was expanded to accommodate the incoming refugees.  Almost 150 females and 250 males are housed there.

The Sudanese government calls itself an Islamist regime—which means, among other things, that the males and females have to be separated.  The problem is that the isolation of the females from the males presents the rogue elements of Sudan’s security forces an opportunity to abuse, harass, beat, rob and, in some cases, rape the females—who are, for the most part, teenagers and girls in their early 20s.

The Eritrean Regime    

The political ideology of the Eritrean regime does not accommodate the view that a citizen, regardless of his or her political views, is entitled to rights or protection from his/her government.   The regime places a higher premium on its entangled relationships with the ruling elite and the constituencies they represent.

Examples abound.  In the 1990s, for example, an Ethiopian of Tigrayan ancestry (who was affiliated with the TPLF, the ruling regime’s Ethiopian partner) had more rights in (and to) Eritrea than an Eritrean who was a member of, or sympathetic to, the Eritrean opposition. When Eritreans who reside in the border areas complained of Ethiopian excesses in the mid-1990s, the Eritrean regime sided with the Ethiopian government. Similarly, when the South Sudan (SPLA) rebels were camped in Eritrea and they were accused of heinous crimes by Eritreans (particularly Eritrean girls), the Eritrean regime sided with the SPLA.   And whenever there are accusations that Libyan, Italian, Maltese authorities are abusing Eritrean refugees, the Eritrean regime does not even go through the minimum diplomatic exercise of protesting or inquiring about the fate of its citizens.

And now, when the East Sudan government--who are the former Eastern Sudan rebels who came to power with the help of the Eritrean regime and whose intelligence and security services are completely penetrated by the PFDJ—are accused of grave crimes by Eritrean youth, the regime is not likely to protest.  

The Eritrean regime does protect the interest of its favorite pet projects, whatever they may be at any give time.  Now, it is Somalia.  Thousands of Somalis who have been displaced by the deteriorating situation in their homeland are transplanted to Sudan by the Eritrean regime.  Thanks to their patrons, the Somali refugees in Sudan get three meals a day; they are not wanting of water; and they are not subjected to any abuse by the Sudanese authorities.

The UNHCR

In February 2002, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) announced that, effective January 1, 2003, Eritreans could no longer claim refugee status because they no longer had a valid reason to flee Eritrea.  Eritrea was also one of four countries where the UNHCR was testing its pilot project of “4Rs” (Repatriation, Reintegration, Rehabilitation and Reconstruction.)

What this means is that right around the time that a new influx of Eritrean refugees began to flow to Sudan and Ethiopia because they feared torture and disappearance in their native country, the highest refugee authority in the world, which also happens to be a bureaucracy eager to demonstrate success, was arguing that there are Eritreans in Sudan but they are not refugees.

Subsequent events have demonstrated to the UNHCR that its February 2002 announcement was premature but, perhaps overwhelmed with significantly larger scale migrations (Darfur, Somalia, Congo, etc), it has not treated the Eritrean refugees in Sudan with the care they deserve.

Awate Report

On December 24th, awate.com reported the following: 

The Eritrean regime’s abduction of Eritreans in Sudan is of significantly bigger scale than originally reported.  Almost four thousand Eritreans, mostly those who escaped from the mandatory draft, have been picked up from Sudan, loaded in Bettahs (trailers) and hauled back to Eritrea.  This may account for the recent increase of Eritrean migration to Ethiopia, where there is little risk of being snatched back.    

Some Eritreans in Sudan have questioned the accuracy of this report since, in their view, a movement of this magnitude would have been witnessed by them.  Awate.com contacted its stringer to see if we owe our readers a correction and/or apology.  Our reporter stands by the story and adds this clarification: 

PFDJ is hauling deserters from the Sudan in masses. People thought that they abducted one or two truck loads of deserters, but the number is so tremendous according to military sources. The youngsters are loaded in Bettahs one at a time and so that they don't create disturbance they transfer them to different detention centers. Some died while trying to jump from the trucks. It is really a cruel and messy affair.    

The only absolute way to know is to interview the prisoners in Track B, Meiter, Sawa, Adi Abeito, Dahlak, Wia and Gedem.   In the meantime, we stand by our report. 

The Sudanese Government 

Many Eritreans will find the accusation that the Sudanese government is mistreating the Eritrean refugees hard to accept because it runs contrary to their own experiences when they were refugees in the Sudan in the 1960s, 70s and 80s.  What has changed?  

The case of the local East Sudan government is relatively easy to explain.  At the macro level, the government of East Sudan is indebted to the Eritrean regime that placed it in power to begin with.  At the micro level, corrupt Sudanese security officers have found reasons for their unpaid excursion to Eritrea. Officers accompanying deported refugees to Eritrea are generously hosted by the Eritrean government officials in the Eritrean border towns. They are hosted in guest houses and entertained with girls, food and drinks. This has become an incentive for the security officers to work hard to arrest refugees and forcibly deport them back to Eritrea.  

As for the central government, it should be recalled that the hospitality that the Sudanese are famous for was never due to the leadership of their government. Whoever was at the helm of the Sudanese government in the last 50 years--whether it was Aboud, or Numeiri, or Turabi or Beshir—has always been all-too-willing to use the Eritrean refugees and their political activists as a negotiating chip with Ethiopian or Eritrean rulers. What has changed is the total collapse of Sudanese civil society and the re-alignment of the interests of its political elite. 

Facing three hostile forces in the west, the east and the south, the Northern Sudanese political elite—the Islamists, the communists, the liberals, and the nationalists---have closed ranks and formed a united front with the Sudanese ruling party to protect their interests.  In the East, an alliance of the non-Arab tribes that straddle the borders between Eritrea and Sudan is considered a threat to the central government.  By denying political space and autonomy to Eritreans of the Gash/Barka areas and by controlling the activities and ambitions of the Eastern Sudanese, the Eritrean regime serves an ideal role for the Sudanese government.  In exchange, the Sudanese government has kept the Eritrean opposition based in Sudan under a short leash, and it has given the Eritrean regime wide latitude to treat Eastern Sudan as its territory. 

Conclusions 

Eritrean youth who are migrating to Sudan are being victimized by rogue elements within the government of East Sudan who are rewarded for their sadism by the Eritrean regime.  Facing world-wide condemnation for its actions in Darfur and fearing the unraveling of its peace agreement with Southern Sudan, the Khartoum regime is grateful for whoever helps to bring about stability in the East—and at whatever cost, which has meant Eritrean refugees and deserters.  Perhaps overwhelmed by other priorities or because it does not want to re-open a case that it considers successfully closed, the UNHCR is also not exercising its sole mandate—helping refugees.    

Last Updated ( Jan 03, 2008 )

http://www.awate.com/portal/content/view/4709/19/