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Eritrean Refugees in Libya 19 March 2013

Human Rights Concern - Eritrea has received several disturbing reports from Libya concerning the abusive treatment of Eritrean refugees in  that country: 1) 76 Eritrean refugees in Libya are being used to clear land mines in

Human Rights Concern – Eritrea has received several disturbing reports from Libya concerning the abusive treatment of Eritrean refugees in  that country:

1) 76 Eritrean refugees in Libya are being used to clear land mines in Sirte, the home town of the late Gaddafi. The refugees are forced all day to clear land mines. These are not trained professionals. This is not humanitarian de-mining. This is a callous, inhuman treatment of humans as if they were disposable pieces of equipment. It amounts to nothing less than murder.

These refugees are not given access to UNHCR. It is inhuman that these  refugees, who fled persecution in Eritrea, should suffer further harassment and risk being blown up while clearing the mines. The Libyans do not want to do it themselves, so they use refugees.  This is barbaric  and should be condemned.

2) Over 400 Eritrean refugees have been trafficked from Sudan to Libya and involuntarily held in Ajdabiya, near Banqazi. Over 120  refugees had paid a $1,700 ransom per person before their release; the remaining 400 are held inhumanly, and those who were released report that they were starving and subjected to inhuman and degrading treatment. This could not happen in such large numbers if the Libyan government took action against it, so it can only be assumed that they are complicit.

3) Eritrean refugees are also detained incommunicado and under harsh conditions at the following prisons:

Salma prison (near  Tripoli) – 81refugees

Al-Khums (near  Tripoli) – no numbers available

Al-Kufra  – Over 300 refugees

Sabha – around 1,200 refugees

Zuwara – no numbers available

It is very sad to see what the so-called revolutionaries in Libya are doing to the refugees from Africa. We had hoped that they would empathise with the situation in Eritrea, and the plight of Eritrean refugees, as they themselves have suffered at the hands of Gaddafi. Instead, the Eritrean refugees are detained like criminals under harsh conditions. The UNHCR office in Tripoli is not notified of the presence of those refugees in Libya. Why not?

Libya is one of the  signatories to the African Charter on Refugees and a member of the United Nations. And yet it flouts the most basic human rights requirements in its maltreatment of Eritreans.

We appeal to the international community to condemn these horrendous developments in Libya.

Elizabeth (Elsa)  Chyrum

Human Rights Concern – Eritrea

London, U.K

www.hrc-eritrea.org

aseye.asena@gmail.com

Review overview
32 COMMENTS
  • SABA March 20, 2013

    They must immediately stop paying the so called ransom, it started the same in Sinai like that!!!

  • smera March 20, 2013

    Simply sad,thanks for informing.

  • Selamawi March 20, 2013

    This is painful news that will affect every Eritrean – hopefully including pfdj supporters.

    If the regime cannot normalize the situation in Eritrea, the young will continue to run away in all directions; and fall in the wrong hands!

    Our predicaments are getting worse every passing day. When is the opposition camp to realize the urgency of the matter and start to coordinate all their resources. We need on organization facing the beastly pfdj regime. We cannot afford to be divided in as many as dozens.
    We urgently need to from a government in exile (like that of Benqazi at the time. The suffering Eritrean young people scattered in all direction need a strong body to protect them, to organize them, and to lead them back home.

    Eritreans unite and win!

  • Paradiso March 20, 2013

    ምሓሸና ዶ

    ቆልዑ ትሩቡሊ እንዳጓየዩ፣
    “ዓብድ ፦ ዓብድ ፦” እንዳበሉ፤
    ኤርትራዊ ሓሰበ ተዳሂሉ፣
    መውጽኢ እንተፈጠረሉ፤
    ልቡ ብራዕዲ ነዲሉ፣
    “ቋንቋና ዓረብ እንተዝኸውን፣”
    ምሓሸና ዶ ፧
    ካብ ውርደትን ሕስረትን ፧

  • Paradiso March 20, 2013

    Eritreans must be fools and idiots to expect any good will from the Arabs and the Arabic world except to be used as condoms and as their human-body-organ spare parts. While the many black African Arabized moslems are shunned as slaves or Abeed in the Arab world as the Akhdams of Yemen, Abeeds in Saudia, Zanjis in Iraq, Abeed-Nubi in Egypt, and the worst names under the book in Libya.
    The funniest story ever invented by some retarded Eritreans say: “We are Arabs/ naHnu Arabi …”
    Thousands of Eritreans and blacks are living as I write Arab in Arab slavery. Here is a documented evidence by radio Netherlands.

    ——————————-
    http://www.rnw.nl/english/article/yemen%E2%80%99s-hidden-slaves

    Slavery is still being practiced in parts of Yemen, with men, women and children all falling victim to the practice. And according to local human rights activists, the government would prefer to simply sweep the problem under the carpet.

    An investigation by the Wethaq Foundation, based on six months of field studies, has revealed 190 cases of slavery in three provinces in the north west of the country. The organisation also found evidence of people being bought and sold, and its report is raising questions about just how widespread slavery is in Yemen.

    Yemeni Human Rights Watch had already documented its first case of enslavement in 2008, when activists found evidence of a slave being traded for around 2.000 euros. The case was discovered via local documents used to register real estate which included the phrase: “the slave Qenaf, son of slave Sara, was legally purchased”.

    • Embasorya The Mighty March 20, 2013

      “The funniest story ever invented by some retarded Eritreans say: “We are Arabs/ naHnu Arabi …” – PARADISO

      Is this a campaign against Radio Assena Arabic Service?

  • hmm@hotmail.com March 20, 2013

    Rashidans had been selling Eritreans ever since they arrived in Eritrea a century ago. They were primarily focusing on stealing kids and selling them for Arabs so they can be slaves. There are many Eritreans slaves in Saudi, Kuwait etc who were stolen when they were kids and grew up serving if they haven’t died of hard labor. Eritreans who reside near Rashidans have known about these for decades and it was an open secret. The only difference is now they no longer have to trade kids, they found a lucrative market (holding Eritreans for ransom.) Bottom line, Rashidans (BTW never participated in the fight for our independence) have always been foreign to us, they are nothing but parasites who feed on our people. Hopefully in the future Eritrea they will have to change their behavior or booted out of our territories. By the way we have to be careful about what we say, our Muslim brothers in Eritrea are not Arabs. The Arabs don’t care about religion, Muslim or Christian, if you are not a pure Arab like themselves, you are a potential slave.

    • Embasorya The Mighty March 20, 2013

      “By the way we have to be careful about what we say, our Muslim brothers in Eritrea are not Arabs. The Arabs don’t care about religion, Muslim or Christian, if you are not a pure Arab like themselves, you are a potential slave. ”

      ” Our Muslim brothers in Eritrea are not Arabs.”!!!! That is very funny. I don’t know how you succeeded in inventing such an original thing. Radio Assenna Arabic is for BukoHaram!!!!! Sorry, followers of BukoHaram respect their local languages. In some ways they are more advanced, in cultural consciousness, than some Eritreans.

  • Paradiso March 20, 2013

    This poem recently appeared in Samson’s Facebook

    Sinai
    A picture perfect.
    Our disjoint reality.
    One bleeds in alien land.
    The other – preaches of the said tongue.
    *********************

    Arabic
    Declared official
    In Sinai
    Dead –
    Or alive?

    *****

    As the black gold – in Dubai.
    Blood gold – in Sinai.
    One from the dirt ground.
    The latter – a heart torn, gagged and bound.

  • Paradiso March 20, 2013

    For those of you who can read Amharic, read what the bastard Arab Syrians did to this poor Ethiopian and many other black Africans and Eritreans. We have heard similar stories of Eritrean victims in the hand of the heartless Arabs in Libya, Yemen, Egypt …
    Please, do not curse the Syrians, like ” … may you keep on killing and destroying each other until your land burns … may you burn yourselves in your land” We Habeshas are very kind people who gave refuge to Mohammed.

    http://www.ethiomedia.com/addis/ethiopians_in_syria.pdf

    ——————

    • Embasorya The Mighty March 20, 2013

      እዚያ
      ደግሞ
      የኢትዮጵያ
      ቆንስላ
      የለም፤
      ኤርትራውያን
      እንኳ
      ቆንስላ
      አላቸው፡፡
      ኤርትራዊ
      ላይ
      አንድ
      ችግር
      ቢደርስበት
      ቆንስላው
      ወደተከራየው
      ቤቱ
      ይወስዳቸዋል::

      VIVA ERITREA!!! WE ARE VERY PROUD OF OUR CONSULATE IN SYRIA.

  • hmm@hotmail.com March 20, 2013

    Paradiso:

    If it was up to me I would choose for Eritrea to only have a single language and a single identity. If you look at developed countries they all have a single language and single identity that helped speed up their development because communication is a key component. Having single language created equal opportunity for al the citizens.

    But the reality in our country is different; we have a large Muslim community who chose to speak Arabic. So we have to accommodate that just like US is trying to accommodate Spanish. But the national language for the country will have to remain Tigrigna since that is the main language spoken in all parts of Eritrea.

    The reason we have different identities, different cultures, different religion, different identities is because we were victimized by different colonizers who came and divided us so they can have us fight one another as a means of controlling our mind. If we look the colonizers themselves they have a single, identity and single language and in most cases single religion (Christianity and Islam in the case of Turk) So I think it is in the best interest of our future to understand how we end up with different identities and try to close the gap by doing our best to re-unite. Our brothers and sisters nearly achieved such unity during the struggle for our independce, we should strive hard to regain that.

    • Embasorya The Mighty March 21, 2013

      How do you accomodate them when they try to define the country as Arab and Islamic ? Compared to Arabic in Eritrea the Spanish language issue in the USA is extremeley benign.

      • Respect Yourself April 1, 2013

        Islam portrays itself as the eradicator of ignorance ‘jahaliya’. The truth however is that it advances ignorance, violence and fear in it’s followers.
        A religion that glorifies the killing of unbelievers. A religion that kills those who want to break free from the barinwashing of their childhood.

        Mohammed was a paranoid, insecure, racist arab megalomaniac. Tell me who’s the real cultleader? The same thing can be said about most religions, including christianity. I and many with me don’t want a theocracy in Eritrea. If you choose to believe in god and follow a certain scripture, that’s your choice. But do not try to force me to recognize arabic as an official language. I prefer that people keep their language and identity, so no eritrean language is excluded. If you absolutely must speak Arabic, you can reside with the Rashaida and see how they will recieve you into their community, maybe you can marry a Rashaida woman, I don’t think so!(I hope you’ve got 2 kidneys, or do they prefer christian kidneys only). You just have to find out.

        Look how proud the SOMALIS are of their culture, language. Try to learn from them. We are Black Africans, wether you like it or not

        I’d rather see Eritrea become part of Ethiopia again than see us become another Black African nation trying to substitute it’s true Identity for an imported Arab one. A culture that sees us nothing but a stepping stone to get to our resources.

  • abe March 21, 2013

    BAN ARABIC IN ERITREA
    The Syrians, Libyans, Iraqis, Pakistanis,Yemenite,Arab Sudanese and Egyptians where at one time conspiring to dismantle Ethiopia/ Habesha nation.They created ELF/EPLF/ALWAHDA from nowhere to do the dirty job for them, they in turn are now burning like hale on earth deservingly so.
    Why Would an Eritrean(save the bastard Rashaida)want to be an Arab? Why is Arabic official language? isn’t Tigre the second largest ethnic group in Eritrea???

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