{"id":1395,"date":"2015-04-24T17:38:19","date_gmt":"2015-04-24T17:38:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitederitreamedia.com\/blog12\/?p=1395"},"modified":"2015-04-24T17:38:19","modified_gmt":"2015-04-24T17:38:19","slug":"crushing-repression-of-eritreas-citizens-is-driving-them-into-migrant-boats","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitederitreamedia.com\/blog12\/2015\/04\/24\/crushing-repression-of-eritreas-citizens-is-driving-them-into-migrant-boats\/","title":{"rendered":"Crushing repression of Eritrea’s citizens is driving them into migrant boats"},"content":{"rendered":"
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To stem the tide of Eritrean asylum seekers heading for Italy, policymakers need to ensure the country is really on a path from dictatorship to nascent democracy<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/header>\n

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\"Teenage<\/i><\/div>
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Teenage Eritrean migrants fleeing their country\u2019s harsh compulsory conscription policy rest in Ethiopia after crossing the border. Photograph: G Beals\/UNHCR<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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A<\/span><\/span>binet spent six years completing her national service in one of Eritrea\u2019s ministries, but when she joined a banned Pentecostal church, she was arrested, interrogated, threatened, released and then shadowed in a clumsy attempt to identify other congregants. She arranged to be smuggled out of the country in 2013 and is now in a graduate programme in human rights in Oslo.<\/p>\n

Like Abinet, hundreds of Eritrean asylum seekers are landing on the shores of Italy. Eritreans are second only to Syrians in the number of boat arrivals<\/a>, though the country is a fraction of Syria\u2019s size and there\u2019s no live civil war there.<\/p>\n

Many Eritreans are feared to have drowned in Sunday\u2019s shipwreck<\/a> in the Mediterranean, from which the death toll could reach 950, with more migrant vessels reported in distress on Monday \u2013 the weekend\u2019s incident has caused EU ministers to hold emergency talks<\/a> on the growing migration crisis.<\/p>\n

The reason most Eritreans cite for leaving is conscription for national service of indefinite duration, with pay so low their parents have to subsidise them.<\/p>\n

There were other reasons I heard during the hundreds of interviews I conducted over the past year with Eritrean refugees in North America, Europe, Israel, Africa<\/a>and Central America.<\/p>\n

Refugees cited unrelenting abuse and humiliation, constant threat of imprisonment or torture for offending someone in authority, often without even realising how they had done this, or for abetting someone else\u2019s escape or practising a banned religious faith.<\/p>\n

The EU and a number of its member states are responding to this crisis by offering aid to Eritrea with the aim of reinvigorating its stagnant economy<\/a> based on unofficial assurances that national service will be scaled back in the future. But they are missing an essential point: the crushing repression of Eritrea\u2019s citizens, especially its youth, is as much a driver of the outflow of people as the lack of economic prospects. Nor are they separate, as the economy is almost completely dominated by the state and ruling party. Money alone will not change this.<\/p>\n

However, despite the country\u2019s belligerent behaviour in the region and its egregious human rights record, which have long left it isolated, there is an opportunity for engagement given that prominent regime officials have indicated a willingness to reform.<\/p>\n