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Eritrea is sometimes described as ”the North Korea of Africa.” And it’s a deserved title.

The tiny nation, located on the continent’s northeastern coast bordering Ethiopia, Sudan, and Djibouti is ranked dead last out of 180 countries on Reporters’ Without Borders’ World Press Freedom Index. All privately-owned media outlets were shuttered more than a decade ago. The United Nations Campaign for Human Rights said there are more than 100,000 refugees from Eritrea in Sudan right now, and more and more refugees are trying to cross the Mediterranean into Europe.

On this edition of Global Journalist, a look at if things will ever change in Eritrea.

US President Barack Obama has praised Ethiopia as an ”outstanding partner” in the fight against militant Islamists.

Its troops had played a key role in weakening the al-Qaeda-linked al-Shabab group in Somalia, Mr Obama said.

He was speaking after talks with Ethiopia’s PM Hailemariam Desalegn, during the first ever visit by a US president to the East African state.

He also called on Mr Hailemariam to improve Ethiopia’s record on human rights and good governance.

”I don’t bite my tongue too much when it comes to these issues,” he said at a joint press conference in the capital, Addis Ababa.

BBC

The people in their home country would be kept as slaves, says activist Veronica Almedom. And it raises violent accusations against the Geneva Consulate, the organizing itself illegal trips home.

Woman Almedom, as a recognized refugee in Switzerland you need to travel authorization. Travel into fleeing the country are even banned in emergencies, so illegal.

Veronica Almedom: Absolutely. But it is a small minority; maybe get 30 000 Eritreans in Switzerland 30 illegal travel. The majority of Eritreans is afraid of a return to the country.

As people come because their travel documents?

Thanks to the double game of the Consulate General in Geneva, which shall then issue them travel documents. This works equally well in other countries. Because: Do the ”traitor” to leave their country once they are cash value. They sign a ”letter of regret” for the return to the land and are not bothered by the police, provide it when entering but two percent of their income from.

Do not you have any fear of returning to Eritrea?

I myself can not go to Eritrea after all that, what I say publicly today.

2010 was the last time in Eritrea. And they gave no interviews?

No. But I can no longer remain silent. My people suffering from a humanitarian crisis and puts his hopes in the Diaspora so that something happens. Those who travel to Eritrea, encounters friendly, warm people, but this is only the visible part. About the invisible speaks hardly anyone.

A country with two faces?

You’d be amazed by the beauty and the diverse landscape of Eritrea, the country could be a perfect tourist destination and would have economic potential. But if I were to return today, I am adventure himself in serious danger.

What are your memories of your last trip?

I was three times visiting my relatives in Eritrea and had the poverty and despair of the local population as well as felt the heavy hand of the dictatorship. In the main, I saw policemen young men threw the passport control on the ground and beat. And I know dozens of families whose sons have disappeared overnight. Whoever wants to know where they are, risk being himself thrown into prison. Sometimes you are lucky and get them back alive because you know someone in the government. There is a climate of fear.

You fight with your club against slavery. That sounds extreme.

Unfortunately, this is not an exaggeration. The National Service in Eritrea applies accordance with international law as a modern form of slavery. The Convention on the abolition of forced labor, which has been ratified by the way of the Government of Eritrea, the current situation in Eritrea is reflected. At the behest of the Unity Party of people are forced to work – under the threat of punishment if the assigned work is not executed.

What does that mean in practice?

Since 2002, all men and women in Eritrea have to work during an unlimited period in the National Service. This begins with the obligatory military service. Eighteen are taken away from their families and shipped off for a year in a military camp in the desert. The training methods are brutal, the heat is unbearable 50 degrees Celsius, even without training. Many girls are abused as sex slaves.

Girls are also drawn?

Yes, some of them already with 16 years. They are completely at the mercy of the officers. Even young men have to expect the slightest peep with the worst punishments. The ”helicopter” is one of the most cruel: the victim is tied together at the arms and legs, hung up and sprayed with sugar water. The skin itches, the sugar attracts the insects – inhuman. Many do not survive the camp.

(Northwestern Switzerland)

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 An Eritrean woman who is claiming asylum in the UK has described the trauma of making the journey here with people smugglers.

Fyori Habtay says men and women were indiscriminately raped and beaten at holding camps in Libya ahead of a perilous boat trip across the Mediterranean. 

The 25-year-old fled from Eritrea fearing she would be punished for her husband’s disappearance from the army.

Her uncle arranged for her to be taken by the traffickers across the Sahara desert though Fyori. She has no idea how much he paid them.

She said Libya had been ”terrifying”, adding that women were raped and beaten.

”We had to stay quiet or we were beaten. We didn’t sleep because there was nowhere to sleep. They beat us and insulted us. It was horrifying to see a human being beaten by another human. They are mindless. They beat us not with wood but with metal chains.

”I cannot explain and I don’t want to remember it. It is terrifying to remember so I’d rather not think about it.”

Fyori says she walked for six days to reach Sudan from Eritrea then spent 10 days in a truck with the smugglers travelling to Libya without food and water. 

She said: ”Until the money is transferred it is relatively ok but once they had the money they beat everybody.

”Everything in Libya is bad – you only go there as a last resort.

”The worst part of the journey is until you get to the sea. In the sea it is a matter of luck. It is God’s will whether or not you survive. The journey overland is degrading and humiliating. It makes you feel dirty like a stain on your soul.”

Fyori says it took five days to make the crossing from Libya to Italy before being picked up by the Red Cross.

She said: ”First they put you in a small boat  for about an hour and we were beaten to keep us quiet because they were afraid that we would be discovered. Then they transferred us to a bigger ropey wooden boat. During the transfer one pushes you from behind and another pulls you on board. If you slip and fall that is the end of you. It’s a matter of luck.

”About a hundred are put below decks in metal compartments to keep the boat stable, they are the ones who suffer most . There are about another hundred who sit in the middle and they struggle to breathe, people die there. When they go to the edge they can fall.  

”There were 570 of us. Two days into the journey I saw a helicopter hovering above but he didn’t rescue us, so we called the Red Cross and we waited 10 hours for assistance. The Italian Red Cross came. Everything was difficult and we struggled to get on board. People were fighting for the life jackets and some children were killed.”

In Italy Fyori says she managed to hide herself on a train in order to get to France. In Calais she smuggled herself into the back of a lorry to England where she claimed asylum.

She now lives in a house in Bolton with six other asylum seekers. The government provides her with accommodation and £36.90 a week to live off.

Fyori spends most of her time in the house apart from the odd trip out for food.

She misses home and says she has no idea where her husband is, but in spite of the trauma she believes she is better off in the UK.

She says: ”In my country things are bad. Everyone is in the military, there is no administration, no peace. It is getting worse, even the old people and the young are being conscripted into the military. There is no order.

”Here I don’t know anybody, I am constantly under stress and I can’t go out. I don’t have a family to relax with. I do miss my family, but if I were to go home I would be imprisoned because of my husband. I would have spent my life in prison in Eritrea.”

:: Read an exclusive report by Sky News’ Alex Crawford as she follows the team hunting the world’s most wanted people smuggler.

A 20-year-old man from Eritrea is nursing serious leg wounds after being shot twice by people he says were Eritrean soldiers stationed near the border with Ethiopia.

”Even after I fell down, I could hear the bullets whizzing past me,” Weldab tells me from a clinic bed in Mai-Aini refugee camp in Ethiopia.

”I was lucky that I escaped. There were 10 of us in total; I don’t know what happened to the rest of my friends.”

This was the young man’s second attempt to leave his homeland.

He walked for most of the journey. Many of the refugees I met walked, mostly at night to avoid being detected.

Some told me they paid traffickers between $100 and $700 (£65 and £450) to show them the way. MORE, GO TO BBC…