Is paying “Ransom” to the Human Trafficking Smugglers a solution?
Paying ransom to free a loved one or fellow Eritrean man or woman has a negative outcome. It is like feeding dangerous sharks because it is an incentive to breed, multiply, and surface to prey on more victims. The recent social media sharing of Eritrean citizens tortured and begging for help is a good example. It can only encourage the smugglers to produce more victims. We must refrain from feeding these dangerous sharks to stop the cycle. We are becoming victims of our own making. In every abduction, an Eritrean actor is involved in the process. What does it mean?
Thousands of Eritreans fleeing the country are smuggled migrants seeking to be reunited with family members already overseas; escaping human rights abuses, including arbitrary arrest and detention, lack of due process, and religious persecution; or hoping to avoid indefinite periods of service in the government’s National Service program. Smuggling for “Ransom” starts at Eritrean home turf.
Most Eritreans start their journeys by paying smugglers, with the ultimate goal of seeking asylum in Europe or, at a minimum, obtaining refugee status in Ethiopia, Kenya, Egypt, Israel, or Uganda; some also strive to reach the United States. Many Eritrean asylum seekers, particularly those who flee the National Service, express well-founded fears of persecution. Eritrean refugees in neighboring countries remain particularly vulnerable to the government indiscriminately arresting, detaining, harassing, or forcibly recalling them into the National Service.
Eritrea’s strict exit to travel clandestinely increase the vulnerability to trafficking abroad, primarily in Sudan and Ethiopia. Traffickers exploited Eritreans in forced labor and sex trafficking in Sudan, Ethiopia, and Libya. Eritreans living inside or close to refugee camps, particularly in Sudan, and transport to Libya, where traffickers subject them to human trafficking and other abuses, including extortion for ransom. Some Eritreans report traffickers forcing them to work as cleaners or on construction sites during captivity.
Eritrean regime continued to exploit its nationals in forced labor, via its compulsory National Service and citizen militia, by forcing them to serve for indefinite or otherwise arbitrary periods. The regime conscripted citizens to lifetime service under intimidation for detention, torture, or familial reprisal. The government did not demonstrate any efforts to address human trafficking. The primary source of Human Trafficking begins at home.
Thousands of Eritreans are vulnerable in the refugee camps and inside the capital of Ethiopia. They are becoming victims of smugglers for ransom and victims of kidnapping by the Eritrean intelligence forces. Reliable sources report that Eritrean intelligence forces converge in Addis Ababa. The purpose was to infiltrate, disrupt, and kidnap Eritreans considered against the regime. It is an open season for abduction and kidnapping in Ethiopia.
On January 1, 2023, the notorious and most wanted smuggler, Kidane Zecarias Habtemariam, the subject of two Interpol red notices by Ethiopia and the Netherlands, was arrested by Sudanese police in coordination with UAE authorities. He earned a reputation for being “ Particularly cruel and violent treatment of Eritrean victims.” he is only one of the many sharks preying on our citizens.
National Representative Council of Eritrea- Government-In-Exile ( NRCE-GIE ) is the only official representative of the Eritrean people abroad and is registered and operates from the USA. We are the principal agent representing Eritreans in the USA and abroad. We are concerned about all forms of kidnappings, including by Eritrean intelligence forces for political reasons. We are to report to interested world different agents to seek cooperation and highlight Eritrean citizens’ systematic and forced disappearances in Eritrea, Sudan, Libya, Egypt, and mainly Ethiopia. We are concerned and working with the High Commission of Human Rights about our countless Eritrean prisoners in Sudan, Egypt, Libya, Ethiopia, Tunisia, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and many other countries. These prisons are human parking for extortion. Eritrean lives matter, and not numbers but dignified citizens of ours.
It is a top priority for NRCE-GIE to advocate for Eritreans wherever they might be. We believe in action, problem-solving, and being result-oriented to serve our citizens. The Eritrean regime does not represent the interest or concerns of its citizens; therefore, we are here to fill the gap in representation and advocacy in the diaspora.
WE ARE BUILDING A CASTLE ONE STONE AT A TIME.
Committee for NRCE-GIE
Ghebre Bahdurai ( Mr. G. ), front officer
January 20, 2023