A Call to the Israeli Government and to the World

It has been a while since the Israeli Government began rounding up African refugees and putting them in jail without trial for indefinite amount of time. About 60% of these happen to be refugees from Eritrea. Eritreans are forced to leave their country to escape government oppression and did not chose to be refugees.

The stories of how Eritrean refugees come to be in Israel is horrifying. Many of these Eritrean refugees arrive Israel after they have been kidnapped by Human Traffickers from refugee camps (like the Shagarab refugee camp in Sudan), tortured, raped, their families forced to pay huge ransom money for their release, and finally dumped by the Traffickers at Israel-Egypt border. The less fortunate are again sold to other Traffickers who demand more ransom money. Yet again, the less fortunate are simply killed, some even after their families have paid ransom.

For about six years now, Human Trafficking in the Sinai desert of Egypt has been an increasing issue, it is estimated that more than 4,000 people have lost their lives there because they couldn’t pay the ransom. A large numbers of these victims are Eritreans who are trafficked through the network of the local Bedouin Human traffickers.

Eritrea isn’t a poor country. The East African country owns two ports in the Red Sea, Massawa and Assab. The country also has a large Canadian mining company operating in Eritrea and making millions from Gold, Silver, Cooper and Zink mines every single day. Sadly the unelected dictator continues to oppress the people, and instead of enjoy the wealth of their country, Eritreans are forced to work without pay for the government including in the mining company.

The unelected dictator Isaias Afwerki been killing many citizens since the 70’s. After Eritrea became independent country following the 1993 referendum, the dictator began to mobilize an army of free laborers under the guise of a “National Service”. The ordeal of every able-bodied Eritrean starts with a compulsory military training in the camp of Sawa at the age of 18. Initially Eritreans were told the “National Service” including the military training, would only for 18 months. Instead citizens have been held prisoners of the system for more than 18 years.  About 40,000 young Eritreans are forced to enlist for training in the military camp.

The oppression of the Eritrean government is extreme. The United Nations estimates more than 10,000 innocent people are held as prisoners for their alleged political or religious views. Many of these prisoners are held inside shipping containers. Many are killed in shallow graves every single day. The people of Eritrea denied their God given rights to live or function in their own land. The Eritrean youth have no hope to live a normal life as citizens. As a consequence many are forced to flee their country in great numbers. In one horrifying incident on October 2013, the lives of 366 Eritrean refugees (all aged under 40) was lost in when their boat sunk just off of Lampedusa, an Italian Island, as they were crossing the Mediterranean Sea. Another 400 perished in the Mediterranean Sea in 2011. For Eritrean youth it’s better to die trying to survive than waiting for death in Eritrea. The beautiful Eritrea is transformed to hell on earth by the government, it has become Africa’s North Korea.

We Eritreans in Diaspora are calling all human rights organizations, and all nations to stop the Israeli government from rounding up African refugees and jailing them or deport them back to the country they fled from. It’s is inhuman for any country to deport legitimate Refugees. The World should take an immediate action to stop the terrorizing of Refugees. Refugees should be granted a refugee status until their country is safe for them to live. Please help us to STOP Israeli Government from abusing African refugees, and particularly Eritrean refugees.

Eden Tedla

Human rights activist

USA