90% of Eritrean asylum-seekers are men, many of whom fled indefinite compulsory military duty.
Eritreans constitute by far the largest population of asylum-seekers in Israel, according to the United Nations high commissioner for refugees.
Sharon Harel, assistant protection officer for the UNHCR in Tel Aviv, said Monday there were around 8,500 Eritrean refugees in the country, as opposed to some 5,000 to 6,000 from Sudan.
Harel said large numbers of Eritreans entering Israel had first been noticed in 2007, when hundreds arrived between January and April of that year. Before that, there were fewer than a few hundred.
Harel said it was unclear why they had begun arriving at that time, but surmised that it could be linked to waves of Sudanese refugees fleeing to Israel at the same time, and the subsequent opening of new smuggling routes and human trafficking in the area.
According to Harel, over 90 percent of Eritreans here are men, mainly between the ages of 22 and 40, as well as many unaccompanied male minors. She said many of these were believed to have fled compulsory military conscription in Eritrea, which can be extended indefinitely by the government. The government often deals harshly with deserters.
The refugees face a harrowing journey on their way to Israel. In addition to physical ailments, punishing heat and exhaustion, they are often subject to physical and sexual abuse from smugglers, who demand payment of between $2,000 and $2,500 each to take the refugees from Sudan to Cairo and then on to Israel. Harel said the smugglers would often hold them for ransom in Sinai, subjecting them to abuse until they received further money from their families.
Harel said one of the main battles her organization faced was making sure refugees were listed as asylum-seekers and not foreign laborers infiltrating the country for work. She added that often, when they arrivedin Israel, refugees told soldiers they were looking for work, either out of fear or an inability to express themselves.
Harel stressed the importance of ensuring that refugees are given the legal right to work, as well as access to health care – the lack of which, she said, could cause a public health issue in Israel.
In addition, she said, the state must ensure “they are given protection and are not returned to the country they came from.”
Eritrea, a small country in the Horn of Africa that is home to just over five-and-a-half million people, is largely unknown to Westerners. In addition, its humanitarian and political challenges have long been overshadowed by those in neighboring Sudan and Ethiopia.
An Amnesty International report for 2009 paints a grim picture of Eritrea, saying that in addition to staggering poverty and undernourishment that affects half the population, the country’s government is known for “the jailing of thousands of political prisoners and army dissenters, and the regular use of torture against prisoners.” The country suffers from “a government prohibition on independent journalism, opposition parties, unregistered religious organizations, and virtually all civil society activity.”
In addition, Eritrea fought a 30-year war of independence against Ethiopia between 1961 and 1991 that left hundreds of thousands dead on both sides and wrecked infrastructure in both countries. Between 1998 and 2001, the two countries fought an additional war that killed some 70,000 in both countries.
The plight of Eritrean refugees in Israel is dealt with on a daily basis by British-Israeli Nic Schlagman, who manages the two shelters operated by the African Refugee Development Center in Tel Aviv.
According to Schlagman, the ARDC provides tutoring in English and Hebrew, legal assistance with visa applications and asylum-seekers’ rights, counseling and shelter for some 44 Eritreans, mainly single mothers, children and pregnant women.
He explained that Eritreans come from “a very totalitarian regime with a very overbearing government, which makes them very suspicious of authority figures and communal leaders.” He added that such conditions were among the reasons they had the highest approval rating for asylum-seekers in the world.
Like Harel, Schlagman said the refugees and the relief agency workers “aren’t asking for much. We want them to have the right to work and not be returned to Eritrea, and they’ll look after themselves.”
Schlagman was busy Monday preparing for the center’s third annual Pessah Seder for refugees and their families in South Tel Aviv’s Shapira Park. The Seder, he said, would incorporate the refugees’ stories into that of the ancient Hebrews who fled slavery in Egypt.
Schlagman denied that there was widespread tension between the refugees and their Jewish neighbors in Tel Aviv, saying, “It’s something I’ve not seen.”
He added that while the government was slow to respond to the rise in asylum-seekers, the issue of being refugees in a strange land should raise sympathy among all Jews: “This issue speaks to Israelis, and they get it. It speaks to core parts of our identity as Jews.”
Comments
http://www.ginbot7.org/
ethiopian & eritrean people should join hand to nuke tigray.
viva eritrea
long live Isayas
death to meles slave
long live eritrea
long live ethiopia
death to weyane/ tigrain people
you are weyane/tplf agent
we will wipe out by joining ethiopian
http://www.ginbot7.org/
http://www.ethiopianreview.com/content/27126
:D :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:
we eritrean support isayas
100%.
:lol: :lol: :lol:
most you are tigrain.
no eritrean oppostion
:-) :-) :-) :-)
.
we eritrean & ethiopian joining hand to wipe you out
will wipe you out
from the face of the earth
:cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry:
you might be partly right
but a lot of people like tigrayans and zenawi
are using it for their politics
and some others are using it for bussiness
it is the bussiness of the day to make dollars
by quoting that/your word.
see you
tewoldeberhan habte
awet nihafash Eritrea and its people for ever
Tewoldeberhan
I started to visit Asmarino web site over 5 years ago. I was a big supporter of the web site. I especially enjoyed the social discussion site. Over the years I have contributed thousands of dollar. I had gotten multiple thank you calls from none other than the owner of Asmarino, Tes. He informed me how helpful I have been to his web site in many ways. I told him, I will continue to be supportive as long as the web site continues to do a good job.
Lately, I have been very disappointed at the web site. More specifically, mine and others comments are been deleted on a regular basis without an explanation, shamelessly. Tes should have been smart enough to realize the web site can't exist without visitors who are customers of the web site. A good business person or leader strives to satisfy his customers or subordinates, respectively, in order to get the most out of them. As DIA takes ordinary Eritreans for granted, Tes takes web site visitors for granted. This is a fatal mistake indeed. This kind of attitude is exactly why certain businesses fail and certain leaders get destroyed.
I ask Asmarino/Tes the following questions:
1. Why are you deleting certain comments?
2. What is the purpose of this web site? Is it to reliably and honestly inform ordinary Eritreans about the truth when it comes to the political, social, religious and economical situation of Eri? Is it to be the mouth piece of the opposition? Is it to always hold the opposite view of the current mafia group led by DIA? Is it to be the mouth piece of a foreign government, such as Ethiopia?
3. How is the web site funded? Is it funded by Tes and family? Tes and friends? Foreign governments? Opposition party? Need an honest answer.
4. It is obvious DIA need to go. But, that does not give the opposition free rein to go wild and make stupid mistakes and take ordinary Eri folks for granted. When are you going to call a SPADE a SPADE? When are you going to expose the opposition's folly and errors? Honesty is the best policy, indeed. The truth, for sure, shall set you free.
5. Are you with "we the people" or the tiny opposition that seem to exist in a different planet than the ordinary Eritreans?
THOSE PEOPLE WITH OUT EAR AND EYES :o PLEASE TRY TO OPEN YOU MIND AND SEE YOU BROTHERS AND SIS. THEY ARE LEAVING HE COUNTRY B/C THEY ARE HAPPY........WHERE IS YOUR MORAL OF SENSE HUMOR YOU DO NOT CARE THAT WHAT HAPPEN TO YOUR PEOPLE IN THE COUNTRY.......THEY ARE DIEING TORTURING AND KILLING BY THE GOV'T OF EVIL AND SELFISH ...........IT IS TIME TO STOP THE EVIL NOW ENOUGH IS ENOUGH FOR THOSE THEY HAVE EARS AND EYES
very bad legacy!
Halaf megedi wrote:
"This is DIA's contribution to the tragic history of Eritrea.
Very sad... :sad: :sad: "
we eritrean support our government 100%
no eritrean oppostion in eritrea.
all you guys are weyane/tplf agent
all you guys are tigrain.
guess what tigrain we are comming after
ethiopian & eritrean joining hand to wipe you out from the face of the earth.
http://www.ethiopianreview.com/content/27126
http://www.ginbot7.org/
:lol: :lol: :lol:
we eritrean support our government 100%
no eritrean oppostion in eritrea.
all you guys are weyane/tplf agent
all you guys are tigrain.
guess what tigrain we are comming after
ethiopian & eritrean joining hand to wipe tigrain out from the face of the earth.
listen what ethiopian saying about the tigrains
http://www.ethiopianreview.com/content/27126
http://www.ginbot7.org/
:lol:
Quote
we eritrean support our government 100%
no eritrean oppostion in eritrea.
all you guys are weyane/tplf agent
all you guys are tigrain.
guess what tigrain we are comming after
ethiopian & eritrean joining hand to wipe you out from the face of the earth.
listen what ethiopian saying about the tigrains
http://www.ethiopianreview.com/content/27126
http://www.ginbot7.org/
:lol: :lol: :lol:
Quote
isu wedi alula is killing our people donkoro.....you will join him south of the mereb river soon
Primitive Business
The second reason why Pentecostal churches are making waves in Africa is their emphasis on miracles and faith healing. Africans are suckers for magic, miracles and paranormal claims. Evangelical churches now capitalize on that. They promise divine healing and instant solutions to all problems - poverty, hunger, failure, diseases, accidents etc. Pentecostal pastors claim they can make the deaf hear, the blind see, the lame walk and the barren give birth to children. They tell us they can raise the dead, make the poor rich and the unemployed to get jobs. Africans are therefore trooping to Pentecostal churches in their millions mainly in search of their miracles.
Another reason for the apparent boom in Pentecostal Christianity in the black continent is American support and influence. The Pentecostal movement originated in America. It arose in the early part of the 20th century in reaction to modernism. And with the growing decline in religious belief in America and the entire western world, evangelists are looking to Africa for converts, for followers and disciples. Most Pentecostal churches in Africa therefore have American connections. And they receive millions of dollars in aid from their American counterparts who want to 'bring Africans to Christ'. Luis Bush, a cousin of the American President George Bush and one of the leading evangelists in the US, supports missionary work in more that 30 African countries. Other American evangelists. Benny Hinn, Todd Bentley, Oral Roberts and the German evangelist Reinhard Bonke, sponsor miracle crusades across the continent.
Pentecostalism has therefore become a thriving business in Africa. In fact it has become the shortest route to wealth and affluence for the continent's teeming population of unemployed youths. Local pastors employ all sorts of means, tricks and techniques to exhort money from gullible folks (as well as foreign friends). They use this money to build magnificent churches, erect costly apartments, and buy luxurious cars and aircrafts. They live ostentatiously while their church mem
bers live and languish in poverty, misery and squalor.
JAIL THEM AND THROW AWAY THE KEY OR LET THEM GO TO ISRAEL.
Because when they claimthat they are Eritreans, they will be accepted as refugees who escaped hell of DIA>
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