{"id":9023,"date":"2017-08-28T21:18:45","date_gmt":"2017-08-28T21:18:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitederitreamedia.com\/blog12\/?p=9023"},"modified":"2017-08-28T21:19:57","modified_gmt":"2017-08-28T21:19:57","slug":"worldviews-analysis-u-s-wants-deport-eritreans-heres-happen-forced-return","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/unitederitreamedia.com\/blog12\/2017\/08\/28\/worldviews-analysis-u-s-wants-deport-eritreans-heres-happen-forced-return\/","title":{"rendered":"WorldViews Analysis The U.S. wants to deport more Eritreans. Here\u2019s what would happen if they were forced to return."},"content":{"rendered":"

By\u00a0Kevin Sieff<\/a><\/span>\u00a0August 24<\/span><\/p>\n

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German policemen check a 16 year-old boy from Eritrea after finding him under a train in the southern city of Raubling on Aug. 24, 2017 during a search for illegal migrants on the German-Austrian border. (Guenter Schiffmann\/AFP\/Getty Images)<\/span><\/div>\n

NAIROBI \u2014 The United States is threatening to apply visa sanctions on Eritrea, one of the world’s most repressive countries, as leverage to force Eritrean authorities to accept its citizens who could be deported from America.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur goal is to get countries to agree to accept the return of their nationals,\u201d David Lapan, a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) spokesman,\u00a0told<\/a>\u00a0reporters Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Lapan said DHS had asked\u00a0the State Department to implement the sanctions on four countries, but declined to identify them. The Washington Times\u00a0quoted unidentified sources as saying they included Eritrea.<\/p>\n

It remains unclear whether the sanctions would be imposed or how many possible Eritreans could be at risk of deportation.\u00a0The State Department declined to comment about whether it was concerned that Eritrean deportees would be jailed or tortured upon return.<\/p>\n

Earlier, the State Department said in a\u00a0statement<\/a>\u00a0that it had not yet implemented the visa sanctions.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe follow a standard process to implement a visa suspension as expeditiously as possible in the manner the Secretary determines most appropriate under the circumstances to achieve the desired goal,\u201d the statement said.<\/p>\n

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But the new U.S. moves \u2014 if implemented \u2014 appear to ignore what would likely happen to Eritrean deportees once they are forced to return.<\/p>\n

The country \u2014 on the Red Sea between Ethiopia and Sudan \u2014 has a long track record of\u00a0jailing<\/a>\u00a0and torturing people who attempted to flee the country. Last year, the United Nations\u00a0reported<\/a>\u00a0on the regime’s use of \u201cindefinite national service, arbitrary detention, torture enforced disappearances.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ironically, even the State Department last year\u00a0said<\/a>\u00a0that the Eritrean government \u201ctortured and beat \u2026 persons attempting to flee the country without travel documents.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now, the United States appears eager\u00a0to send\u00a0Eritreans back to those very conditions.<\/p>\n

Many of those fleeing Eritrea are trying to avoid a lifetime of military service, which the United Nations\u00a0and\u00a0human rights groups say amounts to modern-day slavery. Some analysts\u00a0call<\/a>\u00a0the country the \u201cNorth Korea of Africa.\u201d<\/p>\n

Because of the government’s litany of abuses, Eritrea produces a disproportionate number of migrants fleeing across the Mediterranean to Europe. Between 2014 and 2016, more than 95,000 Eritreans arrived in Italy by boat,\u00a0according to<\/a>\u00a0the International Organization for Migration. For years, the United States has\u00a0resettled<\/a>\u00a0Eritreans stranded in Ethiopian refugee camps.<\/p>\n

During his 2016 campaign, Donald Trump railed against countries that were refusing\u00a0\u201cto take their people back after they’ve been ordered to leave the United States,\u201d as he\u00a0said<\/a>\u00a0in an August 2016 speech.<\/p>\n

Eritreans are rarely deported from Western countries, but some have recently been sent home from Sudan and Egypt.\u00a0Meron Estefanos<\/a>,\u00a0<\/em>a Swedish-Eritrean radio journalist and human rights activist, followed their cases through their families in Eritrea.<\/p>\n

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Today’s WorldView<\/p>\n

What’s most important from where the world meets Washington<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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