May 24 – EYM visit Eritrean refugee camp in Aswan (Egypt)
** Visit Report **
The May 24 – Eritrean Youth Movement (Egypt), on October 24, 2011 managed to visit an Eritrean refugee camp located in Aswan (city located about 1000 km. South of Cairo-Egypt). The visit was part of the May 24-EYM objectives to relieve the sufferings of the Eritrean people and in consistence with its principles to stand at the side of the oppressed Eritrean people found everywhere in the world. The Eritrean refugee camp visited is the “Central Security Forces in the Aswan waterfall”, where refugees fetched from the following four locations are languishing
First Aswan Police Station
Second Aswan Police Station
South Aswan Police Station
Mahmoudiyah Central Police Station
The refugees are waiting to be deported to Eritrea by the Egyptian authorities anytime. It came to the movement (EYM) attention that the Egyptian authorities have already deported about 26 Eritrean refugees to Eritrea on the 20th of October 2011. Rumors indicate that most of them left voluntarily to Eritrea; however, when examined further it was discovered that those who were willing to travel to Eritrea were pushed by despair that crept into many of them because of the length of waiting and suffering inflicted upon them as many of them suffered with chronic diseases. Some of them when learned of their inevitable fate to be departed, expressed their willingness to be deported to avoid maltreatment and torture in Eritrea. Moreover, two people were forcibly deported to Eritrea an event which was confirmed by several sources including some of their friends in the camp and these two people are:
Solomon KebiTesfaye
Kibrom Girmay Woldai
Here, the May 24 – Eritrean Youth Movement is demanding the Eritrean authorities to disclose the fate of those two people who were forcibly deported, otherwise the movement will follow all legal avenues, and follow all other possible procedures to know the fate of these refugees. The movement will not stand idle after it saw firsthand the pain and sufferings of its fellow citizens and heard their pain and groaning in the camp.
Currently the refugees present in the Central Security Forces Aswan waterfall are
118 men:
35 women 2 of them pregnant
5 children one of them two years old
The refugees at the Aswan camp awaiting deportation to Eritrea are sending their messages through the May 24 – Eritrean Youth Movement to all fellow Eritreans in the world to exert their utmost efforts to prevent their deportation to the Eritrea where repression, torture and abuse are awaiting them.
In addition to the above-mentioned groups of refugees there are other groups scattered in prisons and camps in Egypt that we had not been able to visit them, and they are:
3 people in the Qanatir al Kheiriya prison (escaped from the human traffickers in Sinai).
29 in the al-Rumana prison in the town of Al Arish-Sinai escaped from the human traffickers in Sinai.
30 in Kom Ombo, near Aswan, southern Egypt.
Hurghada and in other places
How can we help our brothers and sisters at the refugees’ camps?
To prevent their deportation to the Eritrea (security related solution):
The solution proposed by us are:
First: to have access to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Geneva to address the Commission in Egypt to consider the issue and obviate Eritrean refugees’ calls to prevent their deportation to Eritrea because they will be exposed to abuse and torture if deported. (Urgent case for those refugees waiting to be deported in Aswan camp).
Second: communication with human rights organizations in general and Eritrean in particular, to consult of what should be done and the issuance of statements and appeals to the Egyptian government and clarify the fate awaiting the refugees in Eritrea if deported.
Third: consultations to find out the fate of the Eritreans who were forcibly returned (to follow legal avenues in that regard).
The Eritrea refugees in Aswan complained from lack of medicine, food scarcity and lack of clothing. How to address and solve these issues?
Finally, the May 24 – Eritrean Youth Movement commends that the issue of the refugees is of top priority in its agenda, to provide the essential needs to the refugees and to alleviate their needs and to stand by their side are noble acts. It’s also the closest way to shorten the life of dictatorship and tyranny. The movement extends its hands and show willingness to cooperate with everyone to help the refugee in any possible way. In addition the movement would go further and search for helper and provider because the situation is grave and will not be solved without cooperative efforts of all concerned people and organizations.
Long live the Eritrean people with pride
Crush and destruction to tyranny
May 24 – Eritrean Youth Movement
27 October 2011
Translated from Arabic by Farajat team
Short URL: https://english.farajat.net/?p=6139
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