The Eritrean regime was in Lampedusa contesting the identity of victims and survivors

The Eritrean regime was in Lampedusa contesting the identity of victims and survivors

(Lampedusa 25/10/2005) An article on a website close to the Eritrean regime disclosed that government officials were on the ground in Lampedusa, unofficially, interviewing survivours and families of victims and even carrying out their own DNA testing to confirm government claims that most of the victims and survivours of the Tragedy, off the cost of Lampedusa in Italy, were in fact non-Eritreans.

The article that claims, Italian officials and members of the Eritrean opposition are using the incident for their ‘political gain’ asserts: ‘Although the Eritrean government didn’t make this public, it dispatched a number of officials to investigate the incident and to determine how many of the migrants were actually Eritrean. In order to achieve this, DNA samples were taken as well as interviews with survivors were conducted.’

Eritrean Human rights activists working on the ground in Lampedusa found this practice unethical, both due to the fact that it was an underhanded approach by a government working in the midst of refugees who fled its grips and is in fact a contravention of their rights to protection as refugees under the UN Refugee Convention.

It was also uncovered that the Eritrean regime was charging 150 Euroes for DNA testing of their own when charities were providing that service free of charge for the purposes of identification of remains.

It is to be remembered that on the day of the accident Eritrean official media claimed that victims were ‘illegal African Migrants’ omitting to disclose that nearly all of them were Eritreans. Although the government has since then admitted that there were Eritreans amidst the victims, they have tried to blame the accident on the US and others rather than the root cause of the problem inside the country.

Renowned Eritrean human rights activists, working on the ground in Lampedusa have called for the Italian government to respect the rights of the refugees in accordance to their convention rights and offer them the protecting owed.

Meanwhile survivours and families of victims have unequivocally rejected the intervention of the government officials.

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Notes
1.    Whilst the government of Eritrea maintained a low profile over the weeks since the accident its party functionaries and particularly its Young People’s Front (YPFDJ) have been on the ground trying to influence public opinion.
2.    Tesfa News is a ‘news and views’ website that aims to counter news and views about Eritrea, which is often perceived (by the proprietors as negatively biased). Here is a link to their ‘news and views’ on Lampedusa    http://www.tesfanews.net/eritreans-held-memorial-service-for-lampedusa-victims/

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