Tag Archives: Eritrea

Latest Report Indicates More Journalist Hostages but Fewer Imprisoned in 2015

In its annual report, which was published on 15 December, media rights group Reporters Without Borders (RSF) disclosed that while fewer journalists were imprisoned this year, the number held hostage increased, noting that China and Egypt were named the worst nations for jailing media workers.

According to the RSF, the number of journalists put in prison fell fourteen percent in 2015 from last year. Furthermore, fifty-four professional journalists were held hostage in 2015, an increase of 35 percent from the last year. The reports points to Syria as the country with the highest number of reporters in the hands of extremist or criminal groups at 26. The report also indicates that the so-called Islamic State (IS) group alone holds eighteen journalists, largely in Syria and neighbouring Iraq.

The report also described China as “the world’s biggest prison for journalists,” followed by Egypt, adding that Iran and Eritrea were also condemned for jailing members of the press.

RSF secretary-general Christophe Deloire noted that “a full-blown hostage industry has developed in certain conflict zones.” He highlighted Yemen as being the newest problem country for reporters, with thirty-three journalists kidnapped by Houthi militias and al-Qaeda militants in 2015, compared with just two in the previous year. According to Deloire, “we are very alarmed by the increase in the number of reporters held hostage in 2015. The phenomenon is above all linked to the big surge in abductions of journalists in Yemen.”

Meanwhile lawless Libya had the largest number of journalists reported missing this year. With eight members of the press unaccounted for, the RSF noted that the political climate “makes it harder to conduct investigations to locate missing journalists.”

Calais Crisis

Despite the fact that news outlets and the public have recently focused on the thousands of migrants from Afghanistan, Syria, Sudan and Eritrea descending on Calais waiting for a chance to cross the tunnel towards the United Kingdom, the problem is far from new. In 1999, the Sangatte refugee camp opened in Calais creating controversy between the people that supported the existence of a place were the migrants could stay in and the people that highlighted the dangers of the migrants’ presence in the area. The camp attracted thousands of would-be asylum seekers and people traffickers. The camp was closed in 2001 and 2002, on the orders of Nicolas Sarkozy that was placed as Minister of Interior in the French government at the time. Despite the closure of the camp, migrants continued to arrive in Calais and create makeshift camps near the port since the port did not lose its value due to its proximity to the UK borders, making it the ideal location for the migrants to cross towards the UK. The inhuman conditions that the migrants live in while waiting to cross the channel, and the ever increasing number of migrants descending in Calais has led to protests organised by the migrants for a treatment that respects their basic human rights. French authorities estimate that currently there are about 3,000 migrants living in these makeshift camps known as ‘’the Jungle’’ waiting to cross the Channel. One of they ways the migrants use attempting to cross to UK is by stowing away on lorries bound for cross-Channel ferries. During recent strikes by French ferry workers that resulted in closing the Channel Tunnel, the migrants stranded in Calais openly tried to board lorries stick in traffic on the roads leading to the port. At the same time, there have also been reports of migrants attempting to hide in people’s cars. However, recently, activity has shifted more to the Channel Tunnel. Nowadays migrants attempt to stow away on lorries headed for the Eurotunnel, or jump or cut security fences to try to hide on Eurotunnel trains themselves. There have been incidents reported claiming that migrants have tried to cross the Eurotunnel on foot. The attempts to reach UK have been proved fatal for many of these migrants, with more than ten incidents were migrants lost their lives when hit by passing trucks and trains during their attempt to cross the Channel. Eurotunnel has highlighted the increase of what it describes as ‘’nightly incursions’’ with groups up to to hundreds of migrants attempting to beach security all at once, and how that obstructs the operation of Eurotunnel. Due to these incidents, in July, Eurotunnel asked the French and British governments to pay almost 10 million euros to cover the cost of extra security measures that the migrant crisis has made necessary. Part of these sum is going to be given as compensation to tourist passengers due to the frequent disruptions in the operations of Eurotunnel in incidents involving migrants and strikes by ferry workers. According to Eurotunnel officials, the company has spent 13 million euros on additional security in the first half of 2015, which is the same as it spent in the whole of 2014.

The French and British governments have agreed the introduction of more security measures to tackle the problem. In 2014, the British government pledged 12 million pounds over three years to assist France in handling the problem. In July 2015, the UK announced a further 2 million pounds for a new secure zone at Calais for UK-bound lorries. It later was confirmed that it would provide an additional 7 million pounds for measures to improve security at Calais and the entrance to the Channel Tunnel. At the same time, UK Immigration Minister James Brokenshire announced the creation of the ‘National Barrier Asset’ (NBA) that will be deployed to the French end of the Eurotunnel, at the terminal at Coquelles, to prevent irregular migration. NBA is a collection of temporary security barriers, mainly consisting of a large modular 9ft high fence, established in 2004 to provide police with the ability ‘to protect high profile locations or temporary events’. The fence is designed to withstand an impact from a 7.5-tonne vehicle travelling at 50mph. British authorities believe that the fence will help quell attempts by migrants to cross the English Channel. The port of Calais is currently protected by 16ft fences topped with coils of razor wire and CCTV, with the gates and exterior guarded by heavily armed French riot police. French police have been heavily criticised for taking migrants off lories, driving them a few miles away and then releasing them, knowing that the migrants will head back to Calais renewing their attempts to cross. However, according to the police, the problem is that there are simply too many to arrest and deal with, making it impossible for them to cope with the increasing influx of migrants descending in Calais. At the end of July, an extra 120 French riot police was deployed to Calais, however, it is not believed that the existing number of police force present in Calais is enough to stop the migrants’ attempts. Recently, there have been pledges by the head of the Alliance union for police deployed to Calais for additional help, with many calling for the deployment of the British army to help curb the crisis. UK has already received 27 million euros for the European Commission in emergency aid funding, which it applied for in March. France will receive its 20 million euros by the end of August. However, according to the Commission’s representative, neither country requested additional aid for security in Calais and will not receive funds from the aid program.

The situation in Calais is not an isolated problem but part of the wider migration crisis in Europe, caused by the instability in countries near the European continent, such as the displacement of people from war-torn countries such as Syria, Afghanistan and Eritrea and economic crisis that plagues many African states. For these people, UK is their final destination where many will either enter as asylum seekers, and others will try to enter incognito to remain in the country as illegal workers. This chaotic situation in Calais has resulted in the inability of the authorities to estimate with accuracy how many people have succeeded entering the UK. Home Secretary Theresa May has conceded that ‘a number’ of migrants do make it across the Channel, but no specific figures were given. Both Kent Police and Kent County Council have admitted that they do not hold official figures. The British Prime Minister, in an effort to make UK a less attractive destination for the economic migrants, he vowed that he will throw the illegal migrants out of UK, giving priority to the settlement of asylum seekers in UK.

At the same time, it became obvious that for the better handling of the problem in Calais, the close collaboration between France and UK was necessary. Last week, UK and France signed an agreement on new measures including a control and command centre to help alleviate the migrant crisis in Calais. According to reports, the centre will by jointly run by British and French police and will focus not only on the migrants, but mainly on the people-smugglers operating in the area. The joint command centre will also incorporate the UK Border Force will be led by two senior officers, one British and one French, each reporting to their own government. The joint deal also includes the arrival at Calais of an extra 500 police from the UK and France. Additionally new measures will be introduced, such as sniffer dogs, and additional freight search teams and UK-funded flights that will return the migrants to their home countries.

Despite the obvious problems that the migration crisis has caused across Europe, including the rapidly worsening crisis in Calais, there is another consequence that it has not been brought into greater focus. That consequence has to do with the way the, already rapidly augmenting, far right movements and parties across Europe use the migration crisis to their advantage. From UK, where the crisis in Calais could be used to strengthen the ‘No’ campaign in the forthcoming referendum on the UK’s EU membership, to France that has to face the problem of migration both in Calais and at its common borders with Italy, to Germany where arson attacks destroy shelters for asylum seekers and recent reports estimate that Germany will have to handle some 800,000 asylum claims in 2015.

Despite the fact that the Common European Asylum System is in force and the existence of the quota system that was agreed recently, it seems that rules and decisions are one thing, but putting them into practice EU-wide is another challenge. Not only that, but due to the crisis, there are countries such as Germany that have suspended the Dublin Regulation since they know that returning the asylum seekers back to their entry points, mainly Greece and Italy, it will only prolong the crisis. It is obvious that the existing regulations and measures are not enough to face this crisis, since it is a phenomenon that has never occurred before in such a scale. There is not going to be an easy solution to the migration problem, since its roots will be traced to the instability that reigns in states close the European continent, and if these causes are not terminated the migration flows will continue arriving at the European shores. However, the problem is a European one, and it should be handled as such, with the solution having at its core the migrants’ interests.

New report describes cycle of human trafficking from Horn of Africa into Sinai Peninsula

On 4 December, a report entitled “The Human Trafficking Cycle: Sinai and Beyond” was presented to EU home Affairs Commissioner Cecilia Malmström in the European Parliament. This, the second report on the topic, focuses on collusion between authorities and criminal networks in human trafficking from the Horn of Africa into the Sinai Peninsula. Between 2007 and 2012, as many as 30,000 men, women and children were trafficked by Eritrean and Sudanese security officers working with Bedouin gangs.

The report categorises trafficking in two main categories, those who are “kidnapped”, and those who are “smuggled”, leaving voluntarily, but abducted in the process of migration. In both cases, the victims are ultimately transferred to members of the Rashaida and Hidarib Bedouin tribes (either through financial exchange, or surrendered by force), and sent to torture camps in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula. Many of the victims have been abducted from refugee camps in Ethiopia, Sudan or Eritrea. Most troubling, the report finds that approximately 95% of abductees are from Eritrea.

Nearly 3,000 Eritreans attempt to leave their landlocked nation each month. The disproportionate number of Eritreans abducted stems from three key factors: 1) the diaspora includes a tightly knit community structure and disposable income, which increases the chance of collecting ransom; 2) the lack of alternatives and relative destitution of Eritrean migrants and refugees particularly youth who are forced into conscription and child labour; and 3) the involvement of some Eritrean authorities in trafficking.

Eritreans require an exit visa to leave their nation. Because there is a “shoot to kill” policy at the Eritrea/Ethiopia border, many Eritreans choose to exit the nation through the Sudanese border, seeking shelter in Sudanese refugee camps. The report finds that trafficking would not be possible without the collusion of local Eritrean security officials. Further, many involuntary Eritrean victims are kidnapped by the country’s senior military officers and smuggled into Sudan.

Once in Sudan, the victims’ families are contacted with a threat to sell the hostages to Bedouin traffickers in Sinai if the ransom demand is not met. The report states that the hostages are, “chained together without toilets or washing facilities and dehydrated, starved and deprived of sleep.”

If demands are not met, victims are ultimately sent to Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula and placed in torture camps as ransom demands continue. Torture methods include “burning, beating, and electrocuting. Some hostages are slashed with knives, or have bottles melted on their skin. Some are repeated [sic] raped; some have been hung.” In addition, some victims have had their organs harvested.

Estimates reveal that between 5,000 and 10,000 of the hostages have died in captivity. Refugees continue to be abducted and held in Sinai, and an increasing number of victims are taken involuntarily from their home countries. Since 2009, nearly £366 million has been extorted from families in ransom payments. Those that escape trafficking risk further abduction, or are detained by Egyptian or Israeli authorities, where they are imprisoned then forced to pay their own deportation and repatriation fees.

UN Leader Calls for More Aid for the Sahel Region

United Nations leader Ban Ki-moon has called on those countries located in the Sahel to improve their border security as a means of countering terrorism, and for rich countries to further aid the impoverished nations in that region.  In a new report released by the UN and sent to the Security Council, Mr. Ban warns that conflict in the vast region, which runs from Mauritania on Africa’s West Coast to Eritrea in the east, will only worsen unless a more integrated approach is taken which will focus on security and allowing those states to lift their fast-growing populations out of poverty.  Amongst those countries located in the Sahel which have seen conflict are Mali and Sudan’s Darfur.  The region also encompasses some of the world’s poorest countries which have vast and arid regions that see regular climate crises.  In turn, the UN report states that within the next twenty-five years, the population in the region is set to “ballon” from 150 million to 250 million.

The report reflects mounting international concern over the region.  It also comes at a time when Japan last week announced that it wold provided US $1 billion to help the “stabilization” of the Sahel.  In the report, which was largely drawn up by Mr. Ban’s special envoy to the region, former Italian prime minister Romano Prodi, the UN chief highlighted that “weak governance, widespread corruption,” and “chronic political instability,” were amongst the issues that were threatening the overall security in the region.  He further indicated that “only through strong, common preventative actions geared primarily towards development can we avoid the Sahel turning into an area dominated by criminal and terrorist groups that undermine our collective security.”  The UN chief noted that he was “alarmed” by the rise of groups, such as al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), which has been active in Mali, as well as Boko Haram in Nigeria and other transnational criminal organizations in the region.  In turn, he highlighted that there were clear links between crime syndicates trafficking drugs and militants in the Sahel and has called for greater efforts by countries and regional groups, such as the African Union (AU), to boost cooperation amongst police, military, frontier and customs services.  Mr. Ban has also called for regional intelligence meetings and has offered UN aid to police and judges, who he states should devote greater attention to the financing terrorism, crime and ams trafficking.  There is also a greater need of “exchange of information” between airports in Latin America, Africa and Europe in order to counter the narcotics trade which comes from South America through Africa.  According to the UN report, an estimated eighteen tons of cocaine, worth US 1.25 billion, transited through West Africa in 2012, in which much of it passed through the Sahel.  Mr. Ban has indicated that his proposed UN Integrated Strategy for the Sahel seeks to boost security by helping to improve governance and getting aid to the 11.4 million people, including five million children, that are still threatened by malnutrition.  The UN humanitarian coordinator for the Sahel, Robert Piper, indicated this week that a US $1.7 billion appeal for the region had only been thirty-six percent funded.