651 African Appeal for Eritreans in Egypt

Via the Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies:

Sharm El Sheikh
23 June 2008

Urgent Appeal to African Leaders:
Put an end to Egypt’s deportation of Eritrean asylum seekers

We, the undersigned organizations, call upon African leaders attending the African Union (AU) summit in Sharm el-Sheikh, to urge Egypt to respect its obligations under international law and to cease immediately the deportation of Eritrean asylum seekers. Starting 11 June 2008 Egyptian authorities have forcibly returned more than 700 Eritrean asylum seekers to Eritrea, where there is a significant risk that they will be subjected to arbitrary detention, torture and other inhuman and degrading treatment by the Eritrean government. Hundreds of others are detained in several police stations across Egypt awaiting deportation back to Eritrea. Some of these individuals were previously recognized as refugees by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) office in Sudan, and fled to Cairo to avoid being forcibly returned to Eritrea by the Sudanese authorities.

By deporting these individuals, Egypt lies in violation of its obligations under the 1969 Organization of African Unity (OAU) Convention Governing the Specific Aspects of Refugee Problems in Africa, the 1951 UN Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees and the UN Convention Against Torture, all of which oblige state parties to respect the principle of non-refoulement. The deportation of the Eritrean asylum seekers was also done in complete disregard to recent UNHCR guidelines distributed to all governments and stating that rejected Eritrean asylum seekers should not be returned to Eritrea. A number of NGOs have also called upon the Egyptian government to cease the deportations.

The undersigned organizations are urging African leaders to:

  • Urge the Egyptian government to respect its commitment to the principle of non-refoulement and to cease the forcibly return of Eritrean asylum-seekers who face a significant risk of torture and ill-treatment
  • Call on the Eritrean government to stop all acts of arbitrary arrest and detention, torture and inhuman and degrading treatment;
  • To grant unhindered access by UNHCR staff to detained asylum seekers in order to ensure the careful consideration of every asylum application filed by Eritrean individuals;
  • To urge both Egyptian and Eritrean authorities to allow, without delay, access by humanitarian and human rights groups to detained Eritreans, and to fully respect their human rights in accordance with the AU Constitutive Act and the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights;
  • To invite the Special Rapporteur for Refugees, Asylum Seekers, IDPs and Migrants of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights to investigate and report on these events as a matter of urgency.

    • We thank you for taking note of our concerns

    1. ACORD International;
    2. Action Aid International – Africa;
    3. Action for Conflict Transformation;
    4. Advocates Africa;
    5. African Public Health Alliance;
    6. African Women Development And Comunication Network FEMNET;
    7. Afroflag Youth Vision;
    8. Algerian Coordination for Families of The Missing;
    9. Al-Nadeem Center for the Rehabilitation of Victims of Violence;
    10. Arab Program for Human Rights Activists;
    11. Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies;
    12. Civic Monitor for Human Rights;
    13. Collectif des Associations et ONG Féminines du Burundi (CAFOB) ;
    14. Conseil National pour les libertés en Tunisie (CNLT) ;
    15. Darfur Consortium;
    16. Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights;
    17. Egyptian Organization for Human Rights;
    18. Fahamu;
    19. FAMEDEV : Inter Africa Network for Women Media, Gender, Equity And Development;
    20. Fédération International des ligues des Droits de l’Homme ;
    21. International Refugee Rights Initiative;
    22. Khartoum Center for Human Rights and Environmental Development;
    23. Land Center for Human Rights ;
    24. Ligue Tunisienne pour la défense des droits de l’homme (LTDH) ;
    25. Organisation Marocaine pour les Défense des Droits Humains ;
    26. Participatory Ecologoical Land Use Association;
    27. Peace And Development Platform;
    28. West African Network for Peace Building (WANEP);
    29. WOLPNET – Women of Liberia Peace Network;
    30. Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum;

3 Comments »

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  1. Truth Escapes Satans Grip

    I had a dream.
    I saw satan swimming slowly, languorously, smiling,
    wafting down a river of blood.
    More and more as he spread his blood drenched arms
    across each bank, people murdered themselves
    and murdered their neighbors.
    Their blood poured out filling the river deeper and deeper,
    and satan patiently, willfully, joyfully
    screeched a hideous cry of encouragement.
    The unwitting souls on the riverbank, stood
    with their eyes firmly fixed on the heavens
    spoke the name of God,
    then committed self-murder,
    and satans fingers, dripping blood, dragged their souls
    into his hell bound torrent.
    Occasionally a bright beam of truth
    would shine upon one of the souls on the riverbank
    and they would simply walk away.
    And satan thrashed and screamed each time
    as another soul escaped his grip.

    Through Grace Peace

    Comment by Through Grace Peace — June 27, 2008 #

  2. I really like you site. Keep up good work

    Comment by James — July 5, 2008 #

  3. Excellent post. Not enough people are writing about Eritrea.

    Do you know of any Eritrean blogs?

    Comment by JG — July 22, 2008 #

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