July 8, 2008

Hundreds of Eritrean refugees marched in Addis Ababa on Monday demanding the African Union (AU) stop Egypt and Libya deporting Eritreans who they said faced possible execution if sent home.

Egypt deported up to 1,000 Eritrean asylum seekers last month in its biggest forced return of probable refugees for decades, despite activists’ concern they might face torture.

Waving Eritrean flags, a group of about 500 Eritrean refugees marched through pouring rain to the Egyptian, Libyan and U.S. embassies in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa, headquarters of the African Union.

Organisers said they would deliver a petition to the AU Commission chairman Jean Ping.

A copy of the petition seen by Reuters said the demonstrators had been told by human rights groups that "within a few days" Libya would also begin the forced deportation of some 500 Eritrean refugees it had detained.

"If these Eritreans are returned they will be tortured, sent to prison and some may even be executed," it said.

Opposition Alliance Urges Egypt To Stop Deporting Eritreans

Eritrean Democratic Alliance(EDA),a coalition of 13 Eritrean opposition organizations on Sunday jointly call on Egyptian authorities to immediately stop any further forced deportation against the hundreds of Eritreans being stranded in Egypt.

“We have confirmed that a number of Eritreans upon deported arrival from Egypt are being directly thrown to secret detention centers, torchered to death and some are reported to be shot dead in front of their colleagues to terrorize others from further attempts of escape”A joint statement send to Sudan Tribune said.

Despite wide condemnation and pressures from various international human right bodies Egypt has deported over 800 Eritreans over the past few weeks alone.

“We collectively call on Egyptian authorities to respect and be obliged by international agreements signed and stop forced deportation in no time.” It said

“We urge on Egypt to exert a maximum pressure against Eritrea to make sure the safety of the already deported Eritreans is protected and it has also to follow up their safety then after”

“We also call on Egyptian embassy in Ethiopia to immediately respond to the memorandum earlier submitted by EDA” it added.

In an efforts to bring an end to the crises,EDA officials have been speaking to Ethiopian officials too .EDA official said.

“Eritrean Democratic Alliance is in a final talks with Ethiopian government so away is created for the eritreans to be sheltered back in Ethiopia and government of Ethiopia has given us a green light to our request” Executive chairman of EDA,Tewelde Gebreslase told Sudan Tribune over the phone.

Eritrean Continue To Demonstrate

Eritreans in Ethiopia have continued to take to the streets of Addis Ababa to raise their voice in protest to the deportation hundreds of Eritreans are facing against their will.

“EDA member groups, Eritreans in Ethiopia and other concerned groups will be demonstrating in Addis on Wednesday" Tewelde said adding “we will raise our voices in the doors of Egypt embassy, American embassy, OAU and UNHCR offices in Addis.

In a similar move neighboring Libya is also prepared to deport hundreds of Eritreans.He said

“We have also submitted a separate memorandum to Libyan embassy in Addis to halt the planned mass deportation.”

According to Administration of refugees and returnees Affairs (ARRA) with the 3 new refugee camps which currently went operational in Tigray and Afar regions the total 4 refugee camps in Ethiopia now shelter 31,500 eritreans with many more arriving every day.

Egypt has harboured tens of thousands of African migrants in its territory, but its attitude changed in recent months after it came under pressure to halt rising numbers of Africans crossing its sensitive border with Israel.

At an AU summit in Egypt last week, the head of the U.N. refugee agency said his organisation was having talks with Egyptian authorities about the deportations.

Egypt has denied the UNHCR access to detained Eritreans since February, although the agency saw 140 of them following international pressure. UNHCR has asked Egypt for information on the location and fate of 1,400 Eritreans.