Open letter from Eritrean refugees and asylum seekers in Djibouti
In our January 2012 issue, the Newsletter covered the topic of Eritrean refugees being held in inhumane conditions in Nagad detention centre in Djibouti. Recently, a group of urban Eritrean aslyum seekers and refugees published the following open letter, highlighting the problems they face in Djibouti city. The letter, which can be found here, is being re-printed with the authors’ permission.
Please accept our respectful salutations.
We are Eritrean refugees and asylum seekers in Djibouti city. The reasons why we fled Eritrea are clear and obvious. It is known that no one would ever like to live in the country where the totalitarian regime oppresses his own people, violates the democratic and human values, where the regime uses his citizens as slaves to his own private interests in the name of endless national service, where there is no value for what you believe in and you are persecuted for what you believe in, and other life threatening reasons. In addition to this, there are also many other violations that the international community is not aware of due to the lack of freedom of press in Eritrea. These and other reasons made Eritreans to flee their own country in order to look for a refuge in the neighbouring countries. And this is how we arrived in Djibouti.
Once we arrived in Djibouti, we have faced a lot of unexpected obstacles. We stayed for years without getting even the opportunity of registration in either offices, the UNHCR and ONARS (Office Nationale d’Assistance aux Refugies Sinistres). This exposed us to the daily round ups and many security problems. Later in the year of 2008 the offices were open for registration of asylum seekers. At this time most of the Eritreans were registered in the hope of getting the refugee status. After about two years very few of them were given a mandate refugee status. But most of them are still waiting the decision from the office. The reasons for the delay are unknown. It is clear that we could either be given a conventional refugee status or a mandate refugee status according to the articles in the Geneva Convention 1951 and protocol 1967. However, all these articles are not fulfilled. After the mandate refugee status was given to very few of us, the process was stopped for unknown reasons.
Our situation became worse and worse, especially after the border dispute between Eritrea and Djibouti. Many problems including intimidations occurred and the lay citizen of Djibouti who had lost close relatives in the war couldn’t differentiate between the warmongering regime in Asmara and the first victim of the regime who are the Eritrean people, and we are part of it. We are also afraid of the volatile political situation in the horn of Africa. If the relations between Eritrea and Djibouti happen to be normalised, our fate will be definitely be in grave danger. The same thing that has been happening in the Sudan can happen here upon us too. For example kidnappings, assassinations could come from the misbehaved and notorious regime with the zero tolerance.
After having known all these life threatening problems, we frequently contacted the UNHCR. We had meetings with the previous protection officer several times and it was constructive, used to give some hope. At least we knew if there were new developments. However, the UNHCR is showing a clear indifference afterwards regarding our situation since he (Mr Periklis Kortsari) left the office. It is very hard to meet the protection team in order to address our problems.
We don’t have any assistance from the UNHCR. It is known that the refugees who are once recognised are supposed to have assistance. But we don’t have. We tried to knock as many doors as we can but unfortunately could achieve nothing. We didn’t get any listening ears. As a result of these prolonged unresolved cases, all of us became desperate and some already decided to take dangerous decisions. Many have drowned in the sea on the way to Yemen and many died in the desert and the rest are suffering here without any clear future.
Based upon the above mentioned facts, what we decently request from you is that, our world known problems be justified in the UNHCR office here in Djibouti. Since it is obvious that we cannot live here in dignity, we expect you can play a convincing role so that we could get resettlement opportunities in a third country. The UNHCR is not considering us political refugees through the way we look and dress ourselves. Many times we were told by the protection team members ‘since you are good looking, you wear good clothes and you are in a good health, how can you expect to be resettled.’ Therefore, we want your good role in changing that attitude the office has towards us.
The main problems and threats we have been facing in Djibouti city are listed below in more detail.
Security
The first problem that we are always facing is security problems. We are exposed to frequent round ups and its subsequent problems like bribing and detentions. Our certificates are not respected by the police. After being detained some of us were even deported to Ethiopia against their wills and they were obliged to come back to Djibouti illegally on foot. Another threat we are facing is the neighbourhood fights. We are becoming victims in between; many of us were injured and intimidated. When the police take measures they don’t differentiate between the victims and the culprit. There are women in our community who have been victims of rape and sexual harassments. Some of the refugee and asylum seekers are also denied of being given their wages. When they happen to be fired, they were not given their rights. Due to the fact of not having seen the decisions on their cases many Eritrean asylum seekers and refugees are desperately taking dangerous decisions like taking unsafe sea routes. As a result of this, many of them drown in the sea and perish in the deserts.
Refugee Status Determination (RSD)
Since the majority of us are the asylum seeker community, most of our problems are associated with the delay of the RSD decision. We don’t know the reasons why our cases are put on hold. We are desperately interested to know what our fate could be. We would also like to know if there is a time limit for the decision to be taken by the concerned body. When we ask the result of the decisions, the UNHCR says that the government is responsible for the decision of RSD. But when we go back to ONARS they say that they have passed over the issue to the UNHCR. Therefore we are confused between the two offices and we don’t know whom to ask. Because of this we have been here without any decision for almost five years. Therefore, we would like the concerned body to explain the reasons why our cases were held back for this long period of time.
Durable solution
We Eritrean urban refugees have always been most forgotten, if there is any narrow chance, it is given to Nagad detention camp and the refugee camp. We are almost excluded from the resettlement opportunities. We are not envying our brothers and we understand that they deserve priority as they are in detention. We are only expressing our own problems too. As a community as a whole, we are very disappointed about the words uttered to us several times at the UNHCR office. It was said ‘since you have good health, dressed well, possess mobile phone etc. how can you expect to be given the resettlement opportunities?’ These words hurt us badly and destroy our morals and faith that we had in the UNHCR. The fact that we are political refugees is totally missed.
Education
Despite of our being mostly young men and women who were forced to drop out their secondary school and higher education, we have lost these long years without gaining any kind of education. We heard about the vocational trainings before, however we saw nothing practically happening. The DAFI scholarship programme also disappeared; not a single of us has got the opportunity to be admitted. Therefore we are not benefiting from the educational opportunities which are provided by the UNHCR or other organisations.
Health
Although the Association of Medical Doctors of Asia (AMDA) is there, we are not having enough medical care. Only two days in a week cannot accommodate the whole refugee population. There is no immediate medical service is given. Long appointments are given but the illnesses don’t wait. If there is an urgent case, AMDA cannot help at all. Therefore, we are obliged to collect money from each other to help the patient. Though medical treatment is very expensive in Djibouti and we cannot afford the medical bills and the patients suffer.
Assistance
It is a fact that asylum seekers and refugees don’t get job opportunities. Despite of that the Eritrean urban refugees don’t have any kind of assistances from the office (UNHCR). We are in need of financial assistance or rations. We need any kind of assistance that any refugee deserves in the world. We also need psychological and financial assistance for the sick and disabled urban refugees.
Probability of normalisation between Eritrea and Djibouti
We would like to draw the attention of everybody to another huge threat we are afraid of. The recent news about the normalisation attempt between Eritrea and Djibouti is like a nightmare for us. Unlike the rest of the world, when the Eritrean regime normalises with a neighbouring country, Eritreans become always victims. The very recent incident in the Sudan is a bitter experience. More than 300 Eritreans were deported and handed over to the regime in Asmara at the time of Isayas Afwerki’s visit to the Sudan. Although we hope that the Djibouti government wouldn’t do that, but we cannot hide our fears. Therefore, we want all the concerned bodies to be conscious about the real threat. On the other hand, if the condition develops to another conflict, we fear from becoming victims of emotional outbursts. We have seen such things before.
In conclusion, we want to re-emphasise that our problems and threats are real and are associated with the delay of the RSD decisions and durable solutions. Once again we want to be seen as political refugees as it is the world known fact. And we believe your role would be constructive. We expect Radio Erena would make all the concerned bodies aware of our situation and participate in helping us.
Respectfully,
Eritrean asylum seekers and refugees in Djibouti city
