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DREAMS OF ERITREAN REFUGEES TURN TO ASHES IN YEMEN

Madiha Al-Junaid (author) - Yemen Times Dozens of Eritrean refugees are scattered across the Al-Safeyah area of Sana’a, a densely populated neighborhood estimated to have the largest number of African refugees in the city. Women sit in groups

Madiha Al-Junaid (author) – Yemen Times

Dozens of Eritrean refugees are scattered across the Al-Safeyah area of Sana’a, a densely populated neighborhood estimated to have the largest number of African refugees in the city. Women sit in groups on threadbare carpets, blankets, or mats in streets corners. They are surrounded by playing children, running, shouting, smiling, and laughing; easily distracting observers from the tragic experiences they went through on their way to and through Yemen.

A group of around 200 Eritrean refugees have been living on the streets of Sana’a for months, as they themselves explain. They were arrested and sent to jail upon their crossing of the red sea and the Yemeni coastal border.

According to Omar Abu Bakr, who acts as the group’s representative, he and the other refugees have spent between three and twenty months in the central prison of Hodeida governorate.

Not every Eritrean who arrives in Yemen gets imprisoned, explains Abdullah Ali Al-Zurka, the director of the Deportation Department in Sana’a.  It is only those who do not obtain official refugee status and count as “illegal immigrants” who face jail time. “As soon as they are officially acknowledged as refugees they are freed from prison.”

Surprisingly, refugees appear quite understanding of their imprisonment, explaining that the Yemeni government was rightfully concerned about Yemen’s security and had to preserve its country from “human trafficking.”

The refugees that are living in Sana’a’s streets and are represented by Abu Bakr have all undergone imprisonment before they were freed by the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR).

According to Al-Zurka, the UNHCR office suggested the movement of all freed refugees to Sana’a, where it is easier to process their legal documents and officially ratify their refugee status.

The Eritrean group was housed in hotels located in the Al-Safeyah neighborhood for three months before receiving documents identifying them as refugees. Once their legal status was clarified, UNHCR provided little further assistance, simply recommending they integrate with local groups to build themselves a living in Sana’a.

Idris Ahmed, a fifty-year-old fisherman and a refugee within the group, came to Yemen expecting to receive shelter, lodging, or resettlement in a third country by the Yemeni government or the UNHCR.

“None of that happened… instead we were left abandoned on the streets,” said Ahmed.

Neither Ahmed nor any of the other refugees were prepared for what awaited them in Yemen.

Driven by harships in their  home country, not much thought was given to the future in Yemen, which was mainly chosen as a destination because of its proximity. Everything seemed better than home. “We decided to go to Yemen in order to seek humanitarian asylum there because it was the easiest way for us, via the sea, only a 72-hours trip,” Ahmed recalls.

“We never heard of a good or a bad situation in Yemen. All we did was flee,” explains another refugee, Helen Berhey.

Escaping the Eritrean military

Ahmed, who ran away from the tyranny of his government, explains that he had been forced to join the military regardless of his old age.

Fatima Mohammed, an Eritrean housewife, left her country with her husband, a soldier, for a similar reason, seeking a better life and future. “As a soldier my husband could not provide me and the kids with a life worth living. He sometimes stayed away from home for more than a year, or a year and a half,” she explains.

Holding one of her children in her arms, she adds, “once we arrived in Yemen we spent six months in jail. It was a very tough experience.”

The female refugees weren’t all housewives before they fled Eritrea—a couple of women were part of the Eritrean military as well.

“In Eritrea, military service is mandatory after the 11th grade for all citizens aged between sixteen and fifty. No one can apply for a job or proceed with their education unless they join the military first,” said Berhey, a female soldier who has been in the military for three years before she fled Eritrea with her two brothers, also soldiers.

Following military service, all Eritrean citizens, except for the elderly, must carry an official document with them at all times, stating that he or she completed military service.  “Sometimes the military forces arrest people who are walking on the street without these papers. They also search houses for those who did not join the military to arrest them and forcefully send them to the military training base,” said Maryam Qermay, another female soldier who fled her life in Eritrea after having served in the Eritrean military since 2008.

Speaking about her experiences, she says, “I wanted to continue my education and become a secretary. That is why I initially joined the military.”

According to Qermay, the treatment she experienced during her military service was harsh.

“Our training started at 3 AM and lasted until 6 PM every day. We were beaten with a baton by our supervisors whenever we failed to meet their commands or were late,” said Qermay.

“Some people died during their military service due to heart diseases due to insufficient medical care,” she added, describing the military service as “slavery.”

Thousands of Eritreans flee their country each year to avoid the country’s harsh military service.

Although Eritrea’s “national service” is officially limited to 18 months, in practice the government prolongs service indefinitely. According to a 2014 Human Rights Watch (HRW) report, conscripts are poorly fed, receive inadequate medical care, and earn less than US$30 per month—a sum that is insufficient to provide sustenance for a family.

Children as young as 15 are conscripted into military service, where they are often poorly treated and sometimes face violence, the HRW report reads. Frequently, conscripts are exploited as cheap labor, being forced to work on reconstruction projects for example, such as road building, living in vast barracks in the desert, and not being allowed to leave the work site.

Lacking health services, freedom of expression and religion

Eritrea’s compulsory military service is not the only reason that prompts Eritreans to leave their country. A  lack of health services and the absence of freedom of expression and religion were also put forth by Eritrean refugees in Yemen as reasons driving escape.

A 2014 Human Rights Watch report claimed that since 2002, the Eritrean government has jailed and physically abused citizens for practicing religions other than Sunni Islam, Ethiopian Orthodox, Catholicism, and Lutheranism, which are the four government-controlled and officially recognized religions.

Accordingly, refugees like Qermay complain they have faced severe discrimination due to their religious identity.

Being a protestant and non-Lutheran Christian, Qermay explains that “those who are protestant Christians, like me, face difficulties and racism from the government.” Once police forces broke into the church of her Protestant community, interrupted their prayer and imprisoned the worshipers, including old people, women, and children.

“We were released later and asked in a threatening tone to never have our [Protestant] prayers again,” said Qermay.

Living under difficult conditions in Yemen

“We are facing really bad conditions and circumstances here,” said Abu Bakr, referring to his current life in Yemen. “Our life is now based on charities and people’s mercy,” which is neither a permanent nor a sustainable source of income.

Feeding themselves and their family members, however, is not the only concern of Eritrean refugees living on the streets in Yemen; weather, security concerns, and health issues constitute serious challenges as well.

“Rainy days wet all our carpets and the pieces of cartoons we sit on. We try to hide from the rain with our children, fearing they will get sick. Once we were helped by this young man owning a toy shop, in which we could stay during the rain,” said Mohammed.

Refugees’ security concerns also matter, in a country which is widely acknowledged to find itself facing a very difficult security situation.

8 According to Qermay, “there are days when we can’t sleep out of fear, hearing very close gunfire.” Refugees, she says, find themselves in a very dangerous situation, lacking any protection. “All we can do is turn to human rights organizations and ask for their help.”

Several of the problems refugees are facing in Yemen could be solved by finding them a proper shelter. I fact, living in a safe place with food and adequate services constitutes a key demand among homeless Eritrean refugees in Sana’a.

Sanaa Mohammed, the chairwoman of the Eritrean community leaders, said that the refugees represented by Abu Bakr demanded to be moved to a camp during the meetings with the UNHCR.

“However, they never submitted the documents that are required to be moved to the camps,” she said.

In her opinion, refugees were not placed in camps because they did not know they had to submit a written request. Another possible reason, she assumes, might be that “camps are already fully packed.”

Mohammed’s presumption is contradicted by Jamal Al-Ju’bi, the protection official at the UNHCR. “Camps exist and they can file request to us, moving to those camps anytime,” says Al-Ju’bi, referring to UNHCR refugee camps in Lahj, Taiz, and Raima governorates. He problematizes the “camp solution”, however, saying, “we took them out of prison where they had to live under bad conditions. We don’t want the camp to become another prison.”

Supporting his argument, Al-Ju’bi refers to the 1951 Refugee Convention, which was signed by Yemen, and requires each contracting state to accord the right to refugees “to choose their place of residence and to move freely within its territory.”

Instead of emphasizing the camp solution, the UNHCR is trying to integrate Eritrean refugees into Yemeni society. “We provided and linked them to community leaders who help them find housing and jobs, and who report their needs regarding education, health, legal matters…etc.,” said Al-Ju’bi.

So-called “community leaders” are selected by refugees and confirmed by the UNHCR to act as mediators between the two parties.

Al-Ju’bi explains that the UNHCR office can only assist Eritrean refugees in finding decent housing and providing them with essential services, including health services, psychological consultancy, legal help, or education in public schools. Using their Letter of Recognition for Refugee Status, Eritrean children can actually enroll in public school. While the government grants refugees access to education, it refuses to offer health services, denying them any access to public hospitals. Instead, Eritrean refugees must rely on health centers that operate in coordination with the UNHCR and provide them with free health services.

With very little government funding allocated to refugees, the UNHCR and other international organizations, including the International Committee of the Red Cross, the International Organization of Migration, the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF), or Save the Children, constitute crucial players in the support of refugees in Yemen.

In May, Al-Ju’bi reported that around 40 refugees, who were released from prison, have been successfully integrated in society, and that a small number have managed to find jobs and housing.

More than two months later, Mohammed explained that “over 80% of the Eritrean group of refugees that had to live on the streets, found shelter. They got jobs, and others were enrolled in the vocational training that the UNHCR office provides.”

These figures are problematic, as 20 percent of all cases remain unresolved. With high unemployment rates in the country and over 250 thousands registered refugees, the full integration of Eritreans into Yemeni society is a difficult task.

In light of the dire situation Eritrean refugees are facing in Yemen, it seems little surprising that many of them wish to leave the country as soon as possible, trying their luck elsewhere.

Al-Zurka and Al-Ju’bi agree that most Eritrean refugees wish to resettle to a third country,” saying that “Yemen seems to be a first destination for them, a transit, before heading to their aimed final destination, Europe. They only came here to get resettled.”

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12 COMMENTS
  • hakee August 19, 2014

    We need to stop screaming and complaining about this government. We have our own issues which we have to face them. when EPLF marched to Asmara they were very organized group and with a good leadership. They kept the order of the country. We need to have very organized and united opposition group in order to have the support of the people. Ethiopia is not the solution we all need to stand against the leadership of Ethiopia no matter what. Our people have a fear of Ethiopia. We as group need to have a trust of our people if we have to change this leadership in Eritrea. We all know the suffering of our people but we have not a solution for them. why do our people suffer this much in YEMEN,ETHIOPIA, and ISRAEL? This is the time we have to come together with one goal to have the people’s trust. Our people knows the problems but they do not have trust in the opposition. We need to be ONE STRONG ORGANIZATION in order to get rid of this fear from our people.

    • Wedi Zere August 19, 2014

      Hakee aka(Dirbay hasot),
      Even if you fail ten times,its not a failure so long as you keep working hard to achieve your goals but ITS AN ABSOLUTE FAILURE when you start blaming others for your doomed failure.WHAT DOES ETHIOPIA HAS TO DO WITH THE SAD SITUATION OF OUR PEOPLE?WHY DO OUR PEOPLE FEAR ETHIOPIA AND FROM WHAT?This is just another blame game in order to hide our weakness and world wide known cowardliness.The whole world has been dumbfounded by our silence even in the face of utter brutality and immeasurable atrocities committed against us not for a month or a year but for the last 23 years. Aren’t all theses brutality,atrocities and crimes against humanity waged deliberately against us by people that we called ours?I don’t see anything that links Ethiopia to our suffering other than the brutal and cruel regime that you seem to subtly advocating for.Speaking of Ethiopia,I think they have lost the imaginary appetite that we claimed to have for Eritrea and it seems that the fate of our poor ports have been sealed with the construction of railways that connect the city of Mekele to the port of Djibouti.If the stupid ports that we brag about become insignificant,what else do we have to tantalize and tempt the bad Ethiopia to grab us?Remember,even if Ethiopia wants to invade Eritrea,they can do it in less than a day.There is only one thing we can agree on and that is UNITY and STRONG ORGANIZATION but again we can’t have them because people are not willing to die or sacrifice rather our youth that are supposed to be the vanguard force prefer to die in the desert and the deep sea or sleeping and begging on the streets of Yemen.This is how I see the sad situation of our people.It seems like a consensus has been reached that poor Eritrea is not worth the sacrifice and that’s why we see people of all ages in general and the youth in particular are on the move.
      May God save the poor people (ente kab sebsi tiruf eyu).

      • ahmed saleh August 19, 2014

        Wedi Zere
        “Ethiopia and CIA are responsible ”
        That is the language of cowardice
        and fools .
        Real men face reality without any
        compromise , period .

  • ahmed saleh August 19, 2014

    Eritreans misery in Yemen
    Eritreans misery in Israel
    Eritreans misery in Ethiopia-Sudan-
    Egypt-Libya
    Eritreans misery at strange lands in
    Asia, Eeatern Europe , South America.
    All for what? Scared from one person
    to destroy the whole society?
    Something wrong in this picture.

    • Wedi Zere August 19, 2014

      Ahmed Hawina,
      The world indeed runs out of words to describe the utter brutality and cruelty against the people but worse the silence and tolerance of the coward people even in the face of unimaginable mistreatment by one man and so do I.Its just a crazy curse.My grandpa used to say “mergem weladi ente zeyketele ye eneni”

      • ahmed saleh August 20, 2014

        It hurts in deed my brother.

    • m August 20, 2014

      evryday tragedy we still we talk only lelelele be a man like wadi Ali forto, this is the only our salution

  • Peter August 20, 2014

    look people it is all about economy. People are breeding like rabbits and their meager resources isnot enough. Thanks God, we have a dictator to blame in reality it is the economy. Most of the people if you give them refugee status passport and work the next morning you see the in HGDEF office paying 2% noght club bouncing fee and dance all night long. “Gudam eyu zemenu zemen goma haftey te Azebi asaguma”

  • hakee August 20, 2014

    Peter,
    You are right. It’s all about economy. Why would other African come the same way as any Eritrean if they have democratic government and peaceful country? who would like to be an immigrant if it was not for the economy. It is true we do not want to leave our beloved country but when you do not have a job and home you would like to find other options. Eritreans, Ethiopians, Sudan and other Africans go through the same path to make it to the western countries.

  • Gheyashay August 20, 2014

    Eritreans are the foremost people who love and want to live amongest their kins and kith. I think that is why they fought physically, matterially and morally wherever they were. Consequently, they won their independence.
    If it comes to defeding Eitrea, Eritreans are always there to do so. There were Eritreans who Used to join Gedli from inside and abroad in order to strengthen the combatants’ lines. What is not clear nowadays is that Eritreans seem puzzled as to whom they have to fight back. Because within the same family there is a supporter and an opponent to the same regime. One of the Facebook guys post while two Eritrean elders chatting with each other as one of them saying that he had seen Italian and Ethiopian colonies but he hadn’t understood more than that homegrown colony. And the other one said “you have to understand it because it is given to you in your own very language”
    Hold the yolks tightly, no matter the movement of the ox.
    I think Economy has nothing to do with the abandoning. If there were peace and stability, there would not be a single Eritrean who leaves his homeland as there is no place better than home
    And everybody knows that deep down.

  • Freemind man August 21, 2014

    the Eritrean people are going to dead end road, it is all over for their survive as people. THE END!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  • arbi barnet August 22, 2014

    Freemind man,

    Stop being honest and truthful ,people will hate you.

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