An Eritrean Refugee Marshall Plan

An Open Letter

To All Civic, Humanitarian and Political Opposition Leaders and Members

Re: Urgent Need for a Marshall Plan Type of Aid for Our Youth Refugees

Dear leaders and members of all Eritrean Civic, Humanitarian, Political Organizations, and brothers and sisters in the Eritrean Diaspora:

It is clear that the painful situation of our refugees and our inability to help them is giving most of us sleepless nights. I appreciate and proudly salute dedicated humanitarians such as Elsa Churum, Tesfaldet Meharena, Dr Bereket H/Selassie and others who are openly doing their best to help Eritrean refugees in their difficult situations. However, and despite these and similar individuals compassionate actions, I believe we as a people have failed our refugees and we should be doing more as individuals, as organizations and as a people.

Therefore, I am appealing to you the leaders and the world wide Eritrean Diaspora to help initiate and organize Urgent Actions to save our Youth from wasting away in desperate refugee camps throughout the world. These youth are pleading with us all to do something for them - today! The appeal from the camps is so urgent and so painful, that tomorrow will literally be too late and, naturally, the day after will be a disaster for the majority of these refugees.

For almost ten years we have been hearing of a litany of gruesome and near death experiences that befall these young refugees on their way to escape from tyranny to ‘freedom’. Some of these tragic experiences are highlighted during the passages made crossing the Mediterranean Sea in rickety and unsafe boats. Refugees in distress will often alert friends with SOS messages which in turn cause pandemonium to break out amongst the message receivers as telephone calls and emails are exchanged in a frenzied manner throughout the Eritrean Diaspora communities in Europe and the US. As there is no organized Eritrean entity to deal with such situations, most of the actions attempted to solve these events are on an ad hoc basis. These solutions are also temporary and last only until the specific event is resolved which lacks the ability to follow up on the dilemma of the refugees to an acceptable end. The concern and action of those who volunteer to aid these refugees is highly commendable; but it would be less taxing on the few who always respond to such calls and more effective for the refugees if the task were to be carried out in a structured manner with the force of a recognized Eritrean organization behind it.

As an example let me take the latest desperate call of a very ill young Eritrean refugee in Shimelba, Ethiopia, who has been diagnosed with a drug resistant TB infection. Please view the following links on “Save Temesghen” for details. (Link 1 link 2). Sad as it is we do not have a system ready to deal even with such a problem that can be solved so simply. This time and thanks to the intervention of the always generous and compassionate Eritrean Community in Boston and others, the life of our young brother Temesghen may have been spared. However, the yet unanswered question is what if the case of Temesghen is just the tip of the iceberg and what are we to do if there are many like him in these camps? Can it really be solved on a haphazard and ad hoc basis? I very much doubt that.

In fact talking about Shimelba or the many Eritrean Refugee Centers in Ethiopia, Sudan, Egypt, Libya and other countries, it is a human tragedy (this time entirely of our young generation) that is taking place with our eyes wide open, our hearts hardened and our spirits numb. Many of us have already seen videos and read reports from the indefatigable activist, Ato Tesfaldet Meharena, on his visit to Shimelba. Like Tes, another activist, who recently visited Shimelba, came back completely stunned and disheartened by the desperation and degradation of the lives of these Eritrean youth. This activist too was good enough to bring some valuable videos and a detailed report of the grim situation of Eritrean refugees in Ethiopian camps. In this case none of us can claim ignorance of the hunger, squalor and utter poverty of these refugees. The sad part is that most of those wasting away in these crowded foreign camps are young and educated; exactly those Eritrea will need for building the future of the country.

Moving forward, we are left to ask ourselves – Is there anything that we can do as individuals? Or further, what can we do as a group and as a people? Before we attempt to answer these questions we must recognize the following:

1. The problem is already too big and too complicated to be solved by individuals and the organizations we currently have.
2. The problem is getting bigger by the day. According to the report mentioned above and others like Nharnet.com, up to 900 Eritreans are fleeing Eritrea monthly. Additionally Eritrean refugees are scattered all over the world and number in the tens of thousands. Ironically, it may be easier to count the countries that have no Eritrean refugees than the ones that ‘shelter’ them. Most of these refugees need organized help.
3. Unless the problem is solved at the source or at the refugee camps, the long term repercussions are fundamentally complex and grim.
4. The good Samaritans amongst us who are currently helping and carrying the bulk of the burden are human and may soon burn out and be unable to continue.

At the risk of being presumptuous let me share my suggestion for helping solve some of the above quandaries. I believe, as part of the solution, we have to look to a novel, “Marshall Plan” like global approach based on the following ideas:

• It has to be a single global entity - with one name and a common goal – i.e. to take care of Eritrean refugees and matters related to these refugees (present and future). It should also be a non-political & non-sectarian entity.
• It has to be formed using a new strategy whereby existing Civic, Humanitarian and Political Opposition groups are involved in its creation and are active participants in its operation.
• It has to have a structure that will allow and encourage the involvement of as many Eritreans as possible.
• It has to have the seriousness of purpose and be able to invite, attract and convince foreign participation (national and international NGOs etc).

The advantages of a single global entity are many. I will mention some which for the sake of clarity I have divided into short and long term benefits:

Short Term (Question of Refugees)

• Most significant is the potential positive effect this will engender in our own people in the Diaspora. Most of those who are now despondent as a result of this state of affairs will, I am sure, react positively provided they find an entity they can identify with and a leadership they can trust. They would rally behind and contribute their fair share to help their countrymen and women in difficulty. Consider a $10 monthly contribution from a minimum of 1000 Eritreans (world- wide) would go far in running the organizations operations including expenses of maintaining support offices. E.g. in London and/or Washington.
• The refugees themselves and those who can help them, Eritrean and other groups (national and international), will know with whom to deal with – a single bona fide representative Eritrean organization.
• Such an organization would gain great respect and clout (depending on how well organized and effective it is). These are traits which are essential to effectively represent, advocate, appeal and save our refugees when caught in any difficult situations.
• National and international organizations would be more amenable to dealing with one organ than with a multiple of organizations all clamoring on the same subject from different directions.
• The organization can utilize and take full advantage of the potential for volunteerism of Eritrean youth and experienced elders in the Diaspora. For example useful projects can be established in some of the refugee camps where professional volunteers would be able to dedicate extended time periods to train and educate the young refugees in fields that may be useful for their future careers.

Long Term Post Refugee:

• It is anticipated that solving the problem of our refugees may not be that easy a process. Still whilst undertaking this task some useful experience and some goodwill would be accumulated which could be valuable in the future. If the organization is established to include long term or post-Isayas vision, it could play an important role in the resettlement of returnees. On a broader scale it can also help the future administration of Eritrea in its relief, rehabilitation, reconstruction and development programs.

While reflecting on this problem I was reminded of our recent history and I am sure most of you remember the Eritrean Relief Association (ERA). The principal ERA organization was established in Beirut, Lebanon in 1976 by Dr. Bereketab H/Sellassie¹ and Ato Redazghi G/Medhin with the help of Ato Osman Saleh Sabbe. Soon after, many chapters of ERA were formed in European and North American cities primarily by students in the Eritrean Diaspora. The main objective of the principal ERA and its chapters was the same - to help the hundreds of thousands of our internally displaced people (IDP) and the refugees in the Sudan. Overtime ERA evolved from a humanitarian organization into a fully fledged participant in the Eritrean struggle and the financial and diplomatic contributions it made are well documented. Without doubt, all that was achieved by ERA was a result of the sound structure which it was built upon. It should be noted that the main purpose of citing ERA as an example is only to point out a concept/model most of us are aware of and is available for us to possibly emulate. Furthermore, I am not advocating the direct copying of the ERA structure as times; conditions and the nature of the problems are quite different. Moreover such duplication may not even be desirable but identifying and taking the salient and/or applicable parts from the experience can only be beneficial.

“Helping our refugees…… ” is one of the main goals or missions of most organizations (political and civic), and this lends itself and supports the aspiration of forming this single global entity for the benefit of our refugees. Consequently this action should not pose a threat or problem to any one of them as such a solution only facilitates to put into practice a challenge or promise which is already in writing.

As I mentioned above one of the main architects of the original ERA, namely Dr. Bereket is fortunately still around and still fully committed and actively helping the present generation of refugees in their difficult situations. Dr Bereket and others, like Petros Tesfagiorgis, who have wide experience and knowledge in the formation and running of this type of entity, should be formally requested by the leaders of these groups to offer their services to initiate and set up such an organization.

Finally, my brothers and sisters, I have no reason to doubt that all of you are serious and you stand purely for the service of our people and especially of our youth and I request that you appreciate that divided we can achieve little or nothing. To reiterate, it is obvious that the refugee problem is too big and getting bigger and if we are serious and mean business we need to tackle it with urgent action and with a united front. To give meaning to our current volunteerism and activism we need a completely fresh approach that should be based on unity and unqualified team spirit for action under one singular organization with many Chapters.

Berhane G Negus

November 5, 2009

1 Bereket Habte Selassie, The Crown and the Pen, the Red Sea Press, Inc, 2007, pp 320-324.