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Also this year, Global Voices has taken the course in Human Rights and Journalism Participatory E. Fermi in high school in Bologna. Part of the program is the development – from students – articles and reflections on some of the topics discussed during the meetings]

Thomas Palmieri (4th G) and Simon Persians (4th G)

Do we really know the way the stories of those who are willing to brave the sea and the desert to arrive in Europe? We interviewed Abraham Tesfai, a young Eritrean who lives in Bologna and has chosen not to remain just a victim of this part of contemporary history, but to raise awareness and activism on immigration and asylum.

When you come to Italy?

I got there in 2008, I was 19 years old.

Where did you spend your first days in Italy?

I arrived in Lampedusa after a week of travel in boat. Initially, I was moved to Caltanissetta, Sicily, ended in a field for 2 months and 2 weeks without the right to leave. I made a request for political asylum because I escaped by the dictatorial regime of Eritrea but I was not recognized. I was, however, granted humanitarian asylum and I have been asked 70 euro for the ticket that is given with the permit. Finally I was allowed to travel freely within the Italian borders.

How did you come to Bologna?

I got there by accident as a controller I did just get off the train at the station of Bologna. For a week I had to sleep on the street, but then I left by train for Switzerland.

How were you received in Switzerland?

Arriving in Geneva asked for political asylum. Their reception system is very different from the Italian one: I was given a room and they took my fingerprints. After three weeks they came to pick me brought me back to Italy making sleep a night in jail. They made me strip naked and left. In fact, they realized that I had left fingerprints in Italy. (The fingerprints are taken by those who do not have identification documents with them. Having previously been identified in Italy, Abraham did not have the right to be accepted in another country as a refugee – Ed). I have therefore taken the train and went back to Bologna because it was the only city I knew, even though I knew I’d be back to living on the streets.

How did you settle in Bologna?

Initially I did not have accommodation options. I was overwhelmed by the problems, sometimes slept out in the station or in a dormitory. One day I found a person who offered me a place to sleep, and from that moment I began to work hard to improve my condition. I started as a night porter, then I enrolled in a driving school, I got my license, I worked in a cooperative for three years. During the period when I was working I was following a school night. In fact I had already graduated in Eritrea but when I went to the embassy of Eritrea in Milan to obtain recognition of my degree, I was told that it would help me because I was illegally escaped from Eritrea. I had to redo high school and I graduated as a mechanical engineer with 71. I did the test for the right to physical therapy but have not been admitted, and so I chose agrarian are now in their third year of study. At the same time part-time job.

Why did you decide to leave Eritrea?

Why should I have to do military service for life, dictatorship leaves no freedom or religion, or of speech, or of the press.

What is the dictatorship in Eritrea? What are your technical prescriptions?

With the arrival of the Italians in 1882, Eritrea broke away from Ethiopia. Italian colonialism lasted for 50 years, and then fell to the British who colonized Eritrea for 10 years. In a later period, in spite of many African countries were gaining independence, Italy has decided to donate the territory of Eritrea to Ethiopia. So many riots broke out, soon turned into a war of secession long 30 years. In 1991 we drove out the Ethiopians, with a budget of more than 65,000 deaths; in 1993 was a referendum on independence in which they won the favor with 98%. The party of secessionists have formed a provisional state in order to draw up a constitution and structure of democratic bodies. But in 1997 had not yet been made ​​no progress and then restart the protests to coincide with the rise of free newspapers. In the wake of new uprisings has unleashed a new war with Ethiopia ended in 2000. The following year, the 15 Ministers of the only existing party have called for a constitution. The leader of the secessionists, who behaved like a true dictator, nominally accepted the new document. The next day he sent his soldiers by ministers to make them disappear and today did not know anything yet. It was the moment when we realized that we have a system at home. The dictator has closed private newspapers, put journalists in jail, closed the university, establishing a strict regime of terror. Now open your mouth just end up in jail.

How did you get away?

Abraham Tesfai

I liked Eritrea, did not want to leave, I was attached to my family, to my land, I dreamed that Eritrea would have blossomed. I was not looking forward to going abroad. After a year of compulsory military service along with 10,000 other people at the same time to the studies done in the top fifth, I finally got the maturity. In the field of military service philosophy is that the person should be scared, not to think: that’s why since the age of 18 seviziano you and make you work hard. Since we were also students, we have a high school diploma in that field: because of the heat and all the deprivations that were suffering, only 4% (including me) was able to graduate from obtaining the right to return home to attend the ’universities. After finally see my parents, after a year of suffering, I went to a boarding school because since 2001 the University of Asmara was closed and replaced by some colleges out of town. When I saw the board I realized that it was the same as the field from which I had just escaped: checks every half hour military guard, morning exercise. At this point I’m a bit ’of hope in my country: I lost hope to graduate in what I wanted because they were the ones to decide what I should study. As we studied also they tend to build dams and bridges, were forced labor, there was no time to study. During one of hard labor, I realized that this was not life, and I decided to leave Eritrea (it was 2007). But now I had a new problem: how? If you find that you are meditating escape they put you in jail, you have to know how and with whom to escape keeping everything secret. I talked with my student friends who lived with me agreeing to leave that lousy country under the regime of Isseias Afewerki. It took me a few months to convince them, because they knew that if they were caught in the act of escape, the guards would have permission to open fire, and that even if they were discovered by a conscientious person would still have been taken to jail for at least 3 years. After the fear we have tried their luck: during a night of rain we managed to arrive in South Sudan and overcome the desert, and it is only after many misadventures that I was able to embark and reach the shores of Italy.

Are you afraid of the possible impact on your family?

When they discovered my escape, my father was forced to pay a fine of $ 2,500, in fact, the regime has the power to embarrass your family. I had not spoken with them about my desire to escape. After all, it was not an easy decision to take, my mother would never have accepted it, and I risked death.

Are you still in touch with your parents?

I hear little to telephone and Internet because the dictator holds all the media under control.

Now in Italy you do? What prospects do you have? How do you feel living as a refugee?

After I expired asylum on humanitarian grounds I went to the police station in Bologna. The police directed me to the embassy to get your passport from them. I do not want to go because doing so would have made ​​it difficult for my family, they would have intruded into my private life and I would have to pay 2% of my income to the scheme (as all Eritreans living abroad). I lived for four years without a ticket, ie without being able to move from Bologna struggling to get a better position. I looked for a lawyer I paid 500 euro, has not done anything special, but for the mere fact that I turned to him, the police gave me a residence permit and travel document. I now have subsidiary protection that lasts 3 years.

What value do you have for human rights?

The Universal Declaration of the Rights of Man was born just after the Second World War in response to the many violations of those years, and its principles are very fair, but there is no uniformity, for example in Europe, after the birth of the European Union, the European Charter of Human Rights has been made worse by the Dublin Convention of 2003, according to which a person has to stay in the country where it was met for the first time, the law that struck me in the first person and prevented me from moving to Switzerland. I do not feel the problem of united Europe, in Italy there is not even a commitment to ensure that this will be resolved, so that you do not listen to the people to whom asylum is denied. Italy, although the European Union does not even have a proper immigration law.

Italy as a land of welcome: how do you think?

You meet great people, like the ones that I have pulled off the road, but also so many racists. At the legislative level instead is not able to give an answer to a problem so evident and meaningful. Italy, in this respect, it seems the country that works worse than other European countries.

NEW YORK (28 October 2014) – The United Nations Special Rapporteur on Eritrea, Sheila B. Keetharuth, expressed alarm about continuing human rights violations in the country resulting in mass departures. She warned the UN General Assembly about the high number of children fleeing from Eritrea without their parents.

“By mid-October, more than 4,000 Eritrean minors had arrived in Italy since the beginning of the year, including more than 3,200 children travelling without their parents,” Ms. Keetharuth said, quoting recent data collected by the UN Refugee Agency.

“The numbers provided only reflect those who make it to Europe. We do not know how many children perish along the flight,” the human rights expert stressed. “In all circumstances, unaccompanied minors require special protection.”

The children risk their lives, travelling on their own or with friends, to escape from looming military training and conscription amounting to forced labour, to join family members or in the hope of finding their rights protected across borders. They are very vulnerable and run the risk of exposure to abuse and violence, including falling in the hands of traffickers and smugglers who ask for ransoms from their families.

Eritreans are escaping systematic and widespread human rights violations, such as indefinite forced conscription and violations in the context of the national service, arbitrary arrests and detention, incommunicado detention, inhumane prison conditions, extrajudicial killings, disappearances and torture.

“In recent months, we have seen a considerable increase in Eritrean asylum seekers and refugees crossing into neighbouring countries with almost 4,000 fleeing on a monthly basis,” she said. Significantly higher numbers of Eritreans are arriving in Europe. Between January and September 2014, 32,537 Eritreans arrived in Italy by boat. With Syrians, Eritreans constitute the largest group of arrivals.

The Special Rapporteur noted that the situation has deteriorated in the context of the attempted coup in January 2013, dubbed as the ‘Forto incident’. An unknown number of people, though the numbers quoted are as high as 800, including public figures, were reportedly arrested and detained, with no information as to their whereabouts, nor have they appeared before any court of law.

“The violations described are committed with impunity. No perpetrators have been brought to justice,” Ms. Keetharuth stated. “This is why I welcome the establishment of a Commission of Inquiry by the Human Rights Council to investigate all alleged violations of human rights in Eritrea, as outlined in my reports.”

The expert called on the Eritrean Government, the Eritrean people, in and outside of the country, as well as the international community to cooperate with both the Commission’s and her mandate. “I remain fully committed to continue delivering on the mandate entrusted to me by the Human Rights Council in a constructive, transparent, independent and impartial manner and look forward to starting work as a member of the Commission of Inquiry,” she said.

The Special Rapporteur welcomed Eritrea’s accession to the UN Convention against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment in September, which was long overdue. “I hope this is an indication of Eritrea’s willingness to comply with the prohibition of torture under international law,” she said.

Sheila B. Keetharuth was appointed as the Special Rapporteur on the human rights situation in Eritrea during the 21st Session of the UN Human Rights Council in September 2012. She took her functions on 1 November 2012. As Special Rapporteur, she is independent from any government or organization and serves in her individual capacity. A lawyer from Mauritius, she has extensive experience in monitoring and documenting human rights violations, advocacy, training and litigation in human rights in Africa. Learn more, log on to: http://www.ohchr.org/EN/HRBodies/SP/CountriesMandates/ER/Pages/SREritrea.aspx

Check the Special Rapporteur’s latest report to the UN Human Rights Council (A/HRC/26/L.6):http://ap.ohchr.org/documents/dpage_e.aspx?m=201

UN Human Rights, country page – Eritrea:http://www.ohchr.org/EN/Countries/AfricaRegion/Pages/ERIndex.aspx

For more information and media requests please contact:
In New York:
André-Michel Essoungou, (+1 917 367 9995 / Cell: +1 917 940 0685 / [email protected])
Nenad Vasic (+1 212 963 5998 / Cell: +1 917 941 7558 / [email protected])
In Geneva:
Birthe Ankenbrand (+41 22 928 9465 / [email protected]) or write to [email protected]

Eritrea, one of the world’s most hardline dictatorships, funded mainly through forced taxes from Eritreans living abroad. The government must ensure that tax collection in Sweden ceases with immediate effect, writes Lars Adaktusson.

The Swedish-Eritrean journalist Dawit Isaak fills today 50 years. Birthday spent in captivity in Eritrea where Isaak was imprisoned, but neither charge or trial, for 13 years. His health condition is unknown to the outside world and by all accounts he is in one of Eritrea’s worst prisons. Amnesty International considers him a prisoner of conscience, and he is the only EU citizens who now is in prison because of their opinions. It is therefore highly appropriate that the Swedish side to give Dawit Isaak all the support we can, in conjunction with his 50th birthday. But the best gift the Swedish government can give him would be to increase the pressure on the Eritrean regime through once and for all stop the regime’s economic extortion of its citizens into exile.

Eritrea is one of the most hardline dictatorships. Political opponents are tortured and imprisoned. The regime exerts a massive repression and persecution of dissidents. The UN has on several occasions criticized Eritrea for human rights violations and also imposed sanctions against the regime for its support to terror group al-Shabaab.

The regime’s economic blackmail against citizens in exile is that they are forced to pay a tax of two per cent of the net revenue to the regime. The tax is levied by the embassies, which attracted attention in Sweden. Non-payment may mean that the person can not get the necessary documents from the authorities or the ban on entry to Eritrea. Even close relatives living in Eritrea could face penalties. Lars Adaktusson. Photo: Robin Aaron Lars Adaktusson. Photo: Robin Aaron

The UN estimates the regime’s single largest source of revenue is the tax from Diaspora Eritreans. Approximately 25 percent of the population, nearly 1.2 million people, are living today in exile. The Security Council’s report shows that tens of millions of dollars and probably far more than that annually are collected by the tax. Besides personal expenses and extortion methods of Eritreans in Sweden means treasure in effect a financing of the totalitarian dictatorship and through it, the financing of terrorist activities. The close ties between the Eritrean government and Islamist insurgents have been identified by the United Nations, whose reaction to the linkages among others has led to an arms embargo on Eritrea, which the EU also introduced.

The Swedish government’s starting point towards Eritrea has long been quiet diplomacy, a method that has so far been a failure. The Security Council’s Report of 2012 on the Member States to take measures to stop the collection of the tax. The Swedish Parliament’s stance has been that the tax itself is not illegal, and that it is up to law enforcement agencies to prosecute persons who practice criminal acts such as illegal extortion.

This is not enough. In Germany and the US governments have taken action against the Eritrean embassies. Britain has restricted the freedom of movement of Eritrean diplomats. Canada has gone a step further and threatened to deport Eritrean ambassador out of the country, which has forced the Eritrean Foreign Ministry pledging an end to the tax. It requires, in other words no new legislation to achieve effective improvements for the people of Eritrean background who today live in Sweden.

The Swedish government has all the opportunity to follow the Canadian example and declare that Sweden intends to expel the Eritrean ambassador unless tax collection ceases with immediate effect. My question to the Foreign Minister Margot Wallstrom (S) is: do you want to be involved and give Dawit Isaak, one of the best birthday gifts he can get from us in Sweden?

Lars Adaktusson (KD),
MEP

Lampedusa – Le telecamere di LiberaEspressione – Lampedusa Tra Cerimonie e Proteste ” Europa Nazista ”
Lampedusa assiste all’ennesima passerella dei politici che da anni solcano quest’ isola ma di fatto gli isolani stanchi affermano di aver visto ben poco di tutte le promesse ricevute. Un giorno che doveva essere di preghiera e di riflessione in occasione del primo anniversario dalla strage del 3 ottobre 2013, nella quale 366
migranti persero la vita si è trasformato in un giorno di programmi politici e contestazioni da parte di alcuni Lampedusani.
Al dibattito promosso dal Comune di Lampedusa e Linosa hanno partecipato i massimi esponenti della politica nazionale e Europea tra cui Laura Boldrini ,Martin Schulz, Maria De Asuncao Esteves, Federica Mogherini Luigi Manconi, Rosario Crocetta ed il sindaco di Lampedusa e Linosa, Giusi Nicolini.

Fortemente contestato Martin Schulz e definito “ Nazista” da Giacomo Sferlazzo componente del collettivo Askavusa “ non siete graditi siete voi i colpevoli” ha gridato Sferlazzo a tutti i politici.
Nonostante non ci siano state emergenze che riguardano l’immigrazione sembra che Lampedusa sia diventato un bel cartello sul mediterraneo dove propagandare le intenzioni politiche nazionali e Europee per quanto concerne l’immigrazione.

I superstiti e i parenti con le vedette della capitaneria di porto, dei carabinieri e della guardia finanza si sono recati sul posto della tragedia per un momento di raccoglimento e di preghiera.
Il Sindaco Nicolini definisce questa visita un momento storico, affinché le isole Pelagie possano esporre ai diretti interessati le varie problematiche che da sempre affliggono le Pelagie e nel contempo salvare i migranti che affollano il mar mediterraneo.

Forced military service and rights abuses lead many Eritreans to take the treacherous boat journey to Europe.

Khalid al-Amin  is one of the lucky ones who survived the treacherous journey. Last year on October 3, more than 300 Eritreans drowned when their boat sank off the Italian island of Lampedusa as they were trying to make their way to Europe.

He told Al Jazeera with the lack of basic rights and oppressive rule in Eritrea, he saw the risky journey across the Mediterranean as the only way out.

”As Eritreans we are dead regardless. We are doomed if we stay, and we risk death if we leave. Without freedom you are dead,” said Amin, 39, a refugee among thousands of Eritreans who embarked on the dangerous voyage across the sea. 

He now resides in Sweden after he escaped to Libya via the Sudanese desert and then to Italy by boat.

”Dying is better than a life serving an authoritarian and dictatorial regime,” Amin said.

Eritrea is one of the most secretive and heavily surveilled countries. SMS is not allowed, and internet service providers must use state-owned infrastructure.

The country has no independent media. According to The Committee to Protect Journalists, 22 journalists were imprisoned in Eritrea as of December 2013, the fourth-largest number in the world.

Following a 30-year armed struggle for independence from Ethiopian rule, Eritrean rebels defeated the Ethiopian army in 1991. Formal independence was established in May 1993, when Eritreans overwhelmingly voted for statehood in a referendum supervised by the United Nations.

No elections

Isaias Afewerki has been the country’s only president since independence. Elections were supposed to be held in 2001, but were postponed with no new date set.

Afewerki’s government has created a militarised society with mandatory conscription into the national service – supposedly for only 18 months, but frequently extended indefinitely. Both male and female citizens from the age of 18 to 55 must complete compulsory service.

All conscripts must go to Sawa, a desert turned into a military base, where they must complete their high school education and military service.

Amin was part of the first wave of conscripts following independence in 1991. He was 18-years old when he joined the army and his military service lasted for 10 years.

”In the beginning it was great, I just wanted to serve my country and was very happy to be part of rebuilding the newly liberated Eritrea,” he said.

Gradually Amin said he felt he was serving the interest of the generals, rather than his country. According to Freedom House, an independent watchdog organisation, freedom of movement is tightly controlled.

Eritreans under the age of 50 are rarely given permission to go abroad, and those who try to travel without the correct documents face imprisonment. The authorities adopt a shoot-on-sight policy towards people found in locations deemed a no-go, especially close to the border.

Torture and sexual abuse

Leslie Lefkow, deputy Africa director at Human Rights Watch, said conscripts are subjected to punishment that could amount to torture, and women face sexual abuse by military commanders.

”Many of the conscripts are used as forced labour for private and government projects,” she told Al Jazeera. ”There is no independent judiciary. Most people who are detained, whether they are conscripts or people accused of other crimes, are held in terrible conditions.”

Amin, now working as a care assistant in Sweden, painted a dark picture of life for conscripts, especially female ones. ”The female soldiers did everything we did. In addition they were forced to cook for the commanders, wash their clothes, and some were forced to have sex with them.”

He said if a woman refused to have sex with an officer, she would be accused of something she had not done and would be punished accordingly.

”Punishment would vary from having hands and legs tied to having ice-cold water poured over them several times in cold weather; be hung by a tree, or put inside a container under the blazing sun. In the worst case, death,” said Amin.

UNHCR estimates in the last few years, about 4,000 Eritreans have left the country every month.

”The flow of Eritrean youth fleeing the country shows that the persistent, alarming patterns of serious human rights violations in Eritrea need scrutiny and action,” Lefkow said.

Ibrahim Sherefay, 31, made it to Lyon, France. He endured harsh treatment at the hands of Libyans as he was caught there while trying to make it to Italy.

”I was put in jail for three months under inhumane conditions in Benghazi, where I was allowed fresh air for one hour during the day. After I was set free I went to Tripoli, and in my second attempt I made it to Italy by boat,” said Sherefay.

The alarming rate of Eritreans fleeing the country in recent years led the UN Human Rights Council to set up a commission of inquiry in June to investigate rights abuses in Eritrea.

Sheila Keetharuth, the council’s special rapporteur on human rights in Eritrea, told Al Jazeera there has been mounting documentation of human rights violations, such as arbitrary arrest, torture of prisoners, and indefinite military service with appalling conditions and forced labour for conscripts.

’Modern day slavery’

Salih Sabah, an Eritrean rights activist and a leading opposition figure who has resided in Sweden for 25 years, welcomed the UN investigation, but said it was more than 10 years too late.

”It is the first time for me to see an organisation from the UN criticising the Eritrean regime,” he said.

He accused the Eritrean government of pursuing a new form of ”modern day slavery” through military service, and keeping Eritreans in an ”open prison”.

Sabah said he  believes the commission was established now because the dire situation is embarrassing for the UN, and even the European Union because this is happening at ”the door steps of Europe”.

They told us that we are going to travel to Europe in a big boat, but we were shocked and surprised to see that it was a small fishing boat. We are very lucky to have survived.

– Idris Ali Salih Idris, Eritrean migrant

”People are dying on a weekly basis, not all are covered by the media. We know of accidents that happen between Turkey and Cyprus and no one is reporting that,” Sabah said.

Though the UN inquiry has been seen as a positive step, questions have been raised of its potential impact since the government has not given the commission permission to enter Eritrea.

”I have no access to the country; there is no cooperation from the Eritrean government with my mandate,” Keetharuth, the special rapporteur on human rights in Eritrea, said.

Al Jazeera sought comment from the Eritrean government through its embassy in Qatar, but requests were not answered.

Many Eritreans who flee the country undertake dangerous journeys through Libya, Egypt, and across the Mediterranean to reach Europe.

One of them is Idris Ali Salih Idris, 36, who arrived in southern Sweden two weeks ago.

He made it out of Sudan via Libya with the help of traffickers. It took him eight days by land to reach the Libyan desert.

”We didn’t have enough water, we lived on crackers and some juice. Once we reached Libya, we were met there by the traffickers. They treated us harshly. They moved us into a smaller car and they took most of our belongings away from us,”  Idris said.

”They told us that we are going to travel to Europe in a big boat, but we were shocked and surprised to see that it was a small fishing boat. We are very lucky to have survived.”

Source: Al Jazeera