Strasbourg rules Italy's practice of intercepting boat migrants from Africa and handing them over to Libya was illegal Antoine Buyse for the ECHR blog, part of the Guardian Legal Network Last week the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights delivered judgment in an important

Civil society must aim to lead the debate and actions on a sustainable struggle towards democratic change and beyond the fall of the PFDJ in future Eritrea. Political action usually needs mobilising and inspiring and this is what civil societies can do. What that means,

Ruta is settled in the UK now but she longs for the day that change will come for Christians in her native Eritrea Eritrea has become known as the “North Korea of Africa” under the repressive rule of current president Isaias Afewerki. Facing a cold war

Legal case involved 40 youngsters who were locked up in adult units under Home Office policy deemed to be unlawful The Home Office has paid compensation of more than £1m, plus £1m costs, in a case involving 40 child asylum seekers who were wrongly detained as

by Michael Matza, Inquirer Staff  Writer February 17, 2012 The program aids hundreds who arrive herefleeing dictatorship. Wallingford’s lush hills are a world apart from the arid Horn of Africa. But a trim stone Tudor in the Delaware County suburb is a humming hub of help for refugees

Introduction (by ICER Executive) Dear Readers, The International Commission on Eritrean Refuges is humbled to present an extensive report on names, institutions and contact numbers that we strongly suspect and in many case believe are involved in the tricking, kidnapping, selling, extorting, torturing, and possibly in the

Horrific tales are emerging from Sinai of Bedouin gangs holding Israel-bound refugees to ransom Hundreds of African refugees are being held hostage in the Sinai desert of Egypt by smugglers demanding up to $40,000 (£25,000) each for their release, human rights workers have warned. A brutal trafficking

By Mirjam van Reisen* IDN-InDepth NewsViewpoint Despite great attention paid to the Arab Spring, a ghastly silence prevails about the largest African 'open air prison': Eritrea is so isolated from the outside world that many inhabitants haven't even heard about the revolutions in Libya or the uprising

Parents have begun process of getting son's cleft lip repaired. Born with a cleft lip, Merhawi Fetwi, 3, doesn't seem to notice — but others do. “I'm embarrassed that I can't make him perfect,” said Kiros Gebeye, 33, the boy's father, through a translator. Gebeye, his wife Tsega

In 2010 only six out of 3,366 applications for asylum were approved here - far less than 1 percent. By Don Futterman An estimated 50,000 African refugees, mostly from Eritrea and Sudan, have snuck into Israel through Sinai over the past five years. They tend to

Article: Edward Miller "From the standpoint of justice, the opinions of the Eritrean people must receive consideration. Nevertheless, the strategic interest of the United States in the Red Sea basin and considerations of security and world peace make it necessary that the country has to

Michael Abraha – Addis Ababa Very furious, indeed! And ironically the scene would have put a little smile on the faces of the thousands of incommunicado Eritrean political and religious prisoners who unfortunately are not able to read or hear about it. Nor is the state

December 11, 2011 (ADDIS ABABA) — There are currently 52 journalists imprisoned in Africa, according to an international press freedom watchdog report, however with more than half of these being jailed in Eritrea. In its annual special report released last week, the New York based Committee

As we celebrate International Human Rights Day, we welcome the Security Council Sanctions on Eritrea as a means of bringing to light some of the human rights abuses being perpetrated every day on Eritreans in Eritrea and in some of the countries they flee to,

By Lordick Mayabi NAIROBI, Kenya, Dec 10- Kenya has no intentions of severing ties with Eritrea over the suspicion of Eritrea funding the Al Shabaab, top government official has said. Deputy Director at Foreign affairs division in charge of the Horn of Africa Lindsay Kipteness said that

By KEVIN KELLEY DISAGREEMENTS AROSE among Security Council members resulting in imposition of a weaker set of sanctions against Eritrea than had originally been advocated by the United States and some of its allies. The new punishments, which augment an arms embargo and other sanctions levied in 2009,

Kenya's United Nations ambassador Macharia Munene has welcomed the United Nations Security Council's move on Monday to impose stricter sanctions on Eritrea December 6, 2011. FILE By WALTER MENYA wmenya@ke.nationmedia.com and KEVIN KELLY Nation Correspondent in New York kevinjaykelley@gmail.com Posted  Tuesday, December 6  2011 at  22:30 Eritrea has

Almost 3,000 Africans are held at the Saharonim detention center, with hundreds crossing over into Israel every day. By Yaniv Kubovich, Dana Weiler-Polak and Talila Nesher The commander of the Saharonim detention center, which holds foreigners who have fled their homes in Africa, crossed Sinai and entered

By Jeremy Rumsey The African country of Eritrea is a stranger to peace.  In the past decade it has consistently ranked among the top 10 refugee-producing nations in the world. Because there is no census conducted, the exact population of Eritrea is uncertain.  It is estimated to be around

50 people came to a screening in Sheffield of the documentary “Like A Man On Earth” which shows the brutal reality of life for African migrants in Libya under Gaddafi. With an official from the new Libyan Embassy at the discussion which followed, we asked

Any one in doubt about the Eritrean regime’s involvement in the Sinai tragedy: read this part from the UN Monitoring group on Somalia and Eritrea report: S/2011/433 Pages: 109/110 J. Human smuggling and trafficking 421. The well-documented exodus of young Eritreans to escape poverty or obligatory “national service” represents

By JAMES MONTAGUE The New York Times: KIGALI, Rwanda — In the fading light and steady rain at Amahoro Stadium, the Eritrea national soccer team trained in silence Monday as it prepared for one of its most important matches since securing independence from Ethiopia in 1993. The

UNITED NATIONS, Nov 8 – Eritrea’s president has asked for a personal hearing before the UN Security Council in a bid to head off new sanctions over alleged support for Somalia’s Islamist rebels, diplomats said. Rival Ethiopia has been calling for tougher action against Eritrea for

By PETER LEFTIE pmutibo@ke.nationmedia.com AND AGENCIES Posted  Wednesday, November 2  2011 at  22:30 A third shipment of arms has been made to Al-Shabaab, the Somali terror group that Kenyan troops are fighting, military spokesman Major Emmanuel Chirchir has said. (Read: Two planes fly arms to Al-Shabaab) “We can positively confirm

Eritrean Ambassador to Kenya Beyene Russon and Foreign Affairs minister Moses Wetang’ula at the minister’s office in Nairobi on Friday. Photo/BILLY MUTAI By MURITHI MUTIGA mmutiga@ke.nationmedia.com Ten days before Christmas in 2009, the Eritrean national team arrived in Nairobi to take part in a regional football tournament. After

Stewart Bell The government of Eritrea, which the United Nations accuses of supplying a long list of armed groups including the al-Qaeda affiliate Al-Shabab, has been raising money in Canada by taxing Eritrean-Canadians, interviews and documents show. The 2% “diaspora tax” is collected by the Consulate General

(CNN) -- Fighting in Libya started with anti-government demonstrations in February and escalated into a civil war. Libyan fighters announced the fall of the last stronghold of former leader Moammar Gadhafi, and reports have since surfaced that Gadhafi was killed in the fighting. International powers have

My name is Samuel Peteros I am 14 years old and I currently live in the United Kingdom. Ever since I was a child I wondered how beautiful Eritrea is? After seeing Eritrea on a family vacation I realized how terrible dictatorship was in Eritrea,

Under UN rules, Eritreans are automatically entitled to asylum, whereas Ethiopians have no such collective asylum right. By Talila Nesher The Interior Ministry is deporting Eritrean asylum-seekers to Ethiopia even though it admits it cannot guarantee their safety there, a ministry document obtained by Haaretz shows. Under UN

By Stephanie Busari, CNN and Emily Wither for CNN Sudanese billionaire and communications mogul Mo Ibrahim has issued a warning to African leaders clinging to power, saying people are no longer prepared to put up with bad governance on the continent. Ibrahim says the face of Africa

A queue of small puzzled faces greet Dr Tamer Alaredy as he sets up for the day in his mobile dental surgery. For on this day he was not working in the comfort of his South Shore surgery, but in a refugee camp in Al Qadarif