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LAMPEDUSA ISLAND, Italy, October 3 (UNHCR) – Almost a year after she nearly lost her life off the tiny Italian island of Lampedusa, Letebrhane from Eritrea will overcome her fear of the sea and return to remember the thousands who have lost their lives trying to reach Europe across the Mediterranean on smugglers’ boats.

The 24-year-old said she never wanted to see the sea again after the old boat she had boarded in Libya sank within sight of Lampedusa on October 3, 2013, leaving 368 people dead and just 155 survivors.

”When I heard about the possibility to return to Lampedusa for the commemoration, I was afraid and all the images I had in my head suddenly came back,” said the young woman, who now lives as a registered refugee in Norway. She was referring to an official ceremony to take place Friday on Italy’s southernmost territory.

”I never wanted to see the sea again. Then I realized how important it was for me to be there. I thank God because, to me, surviving October 3 was like being born a second time.” She will attend tomorrow’s commemoration in Lampedusa with other survivors. The group had a private audience with Pope Francis in Rome on Wednesday.

Letebrhane had left Eritrea in 2012 to escape compulsory military service in Eritrea. She could not even say goodbye to her family for fear they would be too worried. Only her best friend, Senait, travelled with her, and together they hoped to reach Europe and safety.

It took the pair one-and-a-half years to reach the coast of Libya, after crossing Sudan and travelling through the Sahara on crowded pick-ups, sold from smuggler to smuggler along the way. Letebrhane said they were frequently threatened and beaten en route; many women were sexually abused. Some of their travel companions died of thirst and exhaustion.

After surviving these ordeals and reaching Libya, they decided they could never go back the way they had come. ”I knew the sea [journey to Europe] was dangerous, I had heard many terrible stories, but I had no other way. There was nowhere else to go,” Letebrhane stressed.

She added that before the boat left, she and Senait were locked in a building in a remote area with scores of other people until there were enough for a boatload. Conditions were terrible and they had barely enough to eat.

The two Eritrean friends boarded the smuggling boat near Tripoli on October 2, 2013. After 24 hours at sea, they finally saw the lights of Lampedusa at four in the morning. They were close enough to see moving car headlights.

Then someone lit a blanket to try and attract the attention of other boats nearby. But this sparked panic on board, Letebrhane recalled, and people rushed to one side to escape the flames, causing the vessel to take on water and founder.

Most of those who survived were on deck, while many women and children were below water and could not escape in time. Letebrhane said she held onto the boat, only letting go when it sank beneath the waves on its deadly and tragic journey to the bottom. Senait was among the dead.

The scale of the disaster stunned the Italian nation and made headlines worldwide. There was great mourning and anger on Lampedusa at the failure to address the mounting number of crossings from North Africa and the attendant dangers.

As a result of this tragedy and a second sinking that left 268 Syrian refugees dead on October 11, the Italian government launched its ”Mare Nostrum” operation, which has since saved more than 140,000 people to date.

But the sea crossings continue and the number of people losing their lives rises. Since that fateful day one year ago, more than 3,600 have died or gone missing in the crossing, many of them refugees fleeing from war and persecution.

UNHCR has urged European states to provide legal alternatives to the irregular crossings and thus help save lives. Letebrhane, meanwhile, will be back in Lampedusa tomorrow, happy to be alive but devastated for those lost at sea.

By Iosto Ibba and Barbara Molinario in Rome, Italy

Geneva ( Agencies + DIPLOMAT.SO) – Amid forced conscription, extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances, the human rights situation in Eritrea continues to remain “dire,” a United Nations independent expert warned, adding that a new Commission of Inquiry would help “pave the way” to accountability.

“The creation of my Special Rapporteur’s mandate has increased international awareness about the large-scale violations of human rights in Eritrea,” said Sheila B. Keetharuth, adding that “concrete steps are urgently needed to address such violations.”

Her comments followed a five-day mission to Italy, where she visited Eritrean refugees and migrants and collected their first-hand accounts.

The widespread abuses allegedly faced by many in the Horn of Africa nation have prompted hundreds of Eritreans to flee their home country in search of asylum in Europe. According to the latest estimates produced by Italian authorities, 32,000 Eritreans were rescued in 2014 as they attempted to traverse the Mediterranean – the majority of all migrants rescued by Italy’s comprehensive Mare Nostrum operation.

“Eritreans are escaping systematic and widespread human rights violations,” Ms. Keetharuth said in a news release, citing indefinite forced conscription, extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances, arbitrary arrests and detentions, torture and inhumane prison conditions, as well as political repression.

Last Friday, the UN Human Rights Council appointed Mike Smith of Australia and Victor Dankwa of Ghana to join Ms. Keetharuth on a Commission of Inquiry to investigate all reports of human rights abuses in Eritrea in what the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) has described as a “historic moment” for the thousands of possible victims.

As part of its mandate, the Commission will investigate “the most egregious human rights violations,” including cases of extrajudicial killing, enforced disappearance and incommunicado detention, torture, and lack of freedom of expression and opinion, assembly, association, religious belief and movement.

The Special Rapporteur urged the Government and people of Eritrea, as well as the international community, to cooperate with the Commission’s inquiry.

“I hope the Commission of Inquiry would pave the way to establish accountability for these violations,” said Ms. Keetharuth, “especially in view of the continued non-cooperation of Eritrea with my mandate and other UN mechanisms.”

Independent experts or special rapporteurs are appointed by the Geneva-based Council to examine and report back on a country situation or a specific human rights theme. The positions are honorary and the experts are not UN staff, nor are they paid for their work.

The founding members of the PEN Eritrea are committed to excellence in its participative approach to promote freedom of expression in Eritrea. The historic organization will officially be formed in Bishkek- Kirgisistan between Sept. 29 – Oct. 2, 2014 with the following intended objectives:

PDF: An_Official_Invitation_Letter_to_all_Media_Outlets-1

Brussels (DIPLOMAT.SO)- The European Union On Friday expressed concerns over continued human rights violations in Eritrea, especially arbitrary detentions and lack of religious freedom and freedom of expression.

“We remain deeply concerned that the State of Eritrea continues to violate its international and domestic obligations regarding human rights,” the European bloc said in a statement.

EU expressed particular concerns over the continued detention of a charge, trial or legal counsel of eleven 11 prominent politicians, including three former cabinet ministers, since September 18, 2001.

The bloc also expressed concerns over the continued detention of ten independent journalists, including the Eritrean-EU citizen Dawit Isaak, since September 23, 2011. They are also being held without charges or trial.

“Despite repeated appeals by the international community, including the UN Human Rights Council and the EU, these people have been detained incommunicado for the last thirteen years, with all their rights suspended,” the EU statement read.

The statement stressed that this conduct of the Eritrean government is in “clear violation of obligations established in the UN International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), ratified by Eritrea, such as the prohibition against arbitrary detention.”

The European bloc urged the Government of Eritrea to release these prisoners immediately and unconditionally, along with other prisoners detained for their political views. The bloc also requested the Eritrean government to release information on the whereabouts of these prisoners, and to ensure that they are given access to their families and lawyers.

Further, the EU called on the Government of Eritrea to honor its international human rights obligations and to urgently improve its human rights situation.

“The EU also calls on the Government to fully co-operate with the UN Special Rapporteur on the human rights situation in Eritrea as well as to implement the recommendations made by the UN Human Rights Council during the Universal Periodic Review of the State of Eritrea in 2014,” the note said.

About 500 migrants are feared dead after their ship was rammed by another boat near Malta last week, a migration body said.

Two Palestinian survivors told the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) that the boat had been intentionally sunk by traffickers.

They said the boat had left Damietta in Egypt in early September.

The IOM says that more than 2,500 people are now believed to have drowned in the Mediterranean this year.

News of the sinking near Malta emerged as another vessel carrying 250 people sank off the coast of Libya.

Over 200 people are feared to have drowned in that incident.

’Violent confrontation’

IOM spokeswoman Christiane Berthiaume said that the two survivors from the Malta sinking were rescued on Thursday, the day after their boat sank.

They said traffickers rammed the boat after a ”violent confrontation” on board. The IOM said there were nine known survivors in total.

The boat had been carrying Syrians, Palestinians, Egyptians and Sudanese, the survivors said.

Major migrant boat tragedies

• March 2009: More than 200 African migrants drown after their boat sank off the coast of Libya
• October 2013: 366 people, mostly Eritrean, die when their boat catches fire and sinks near Lampedusa
• August 2014: Around 170 feared dead after another boat sinks off Libya

The passengers, who included women and children, were reportedly told to move to a smaller, less safe boat. When they refused, the traffickers sank the larger vessel, the eyewitnesses said.

The Maltese authorities have not yet commented on the incident.

The UN says more than 130,000 migrants have arrived in Europe by sea this year, compared with 80,000 last year. Italy has received more than 118,000 migrants, the UN said.

Many attempt to cross from North Africa and the Middle East in unsafe and overcrowded vessels.

The UN’s Andrej Mahecic told the BBC that more than half of those arriving by boat were refugees from Syria and Eritrea.

By: BBC