There is human catastrophe unfolding in Yemen at this very minute. Two hundred and forty four Eritreans ninety five percent of whom are Afar citizens of Eritrea are in prison some for almost one year. Their crime is simply for entering Yemen without document. Their claim for political asylum until situation at home is improved was completely ignored by the Yemeni authorities and the UNHCR is on the sideline simply watching helpless.
As it is true with most Eritreans, this particular ethnic group is driven out of their traditional areas, prevented from leading their subsistence existence which is fishing on the Red Sea and forcibly conscripted in the open ended military National Service which has become scourge ....
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Regrettably, the 300 Afar refugees are languishing in Al-Hudeyda prison where their lives are trapped in a serious threat. Apart from consistent warnings of forcible return to Eritrea, they are facing communicable diseases caused by contaminated food and water. Amongst them are around 50 Afar refugees are in a grave danger of losing their lives to this disease outbreak.
Unfortunately, the ongoing political uncertainty in Yemen exasperated the situation of Red Sea Afar refugees. Going on almost a year in captivity, they haven’t had any access to UNHCR and Human rights organizations, representatives of Yemeni government or any access to medications and basic needs, which is guaranteed to them under UN Geneva convention on rights of refugees.
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On Saturday, May 12, at 12:00 PM (Los Angeles Time) or 21:00 (Berlin Time) Yosief Ghebrehiwet will give a presentation at Smerr Paltalk. The topic is "The Fallacies of the Democracy Project and Nationhood in the Eritrean Context" In this presentation, the following points will be discussed:
- What is wrong with the Democracy Project as practiced by the Opposition? On this part, more than a dozen fallacies will be discussed.
- After discussing the notion of "nationhood" in the Eritrean context, this question will be addressed: What is being done to hold Eritrea together as a nation?
- After looking at the rationale of the past (the Eritrean revolution) and the present (the opposition) movements regarding (1) and (2), we will look at this question: Given the above fallacies and failings, how do we anchor the Eritrean nation in the future?
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The International Commission on Eritrean Refugees (ICER) would like to appeal to all the political groups in particular to those whose operational base is Ethiopia to give focus on the issues affecting refugees in particular to the shady operation going on in the refugee camps. Frankly, since their base of operation is located stone throw away from Eritrea where the bulk of the refugees originate from we believe they are better placed than most of us to influence events, at least in as far as regulating the flow of persons from the refugee camps in Ethiopia and the Sudan. ...
This being the case, therefore, why is it so difficult for the political parties and in particular those operating from Ethiopia where part of the illegal activities is occurring cannot act in earnest to stop it? Is it because they are too preoccupied dealing with the more burning issues, for example, the overthrow of the unrepresentative regime and replacing it with democratic one? ...
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