Eritrea expels 622 Ethiopians to their country
March 15, 2008 (AXUM, Ethiopia) — Eritrean government expelled 622 Ethiopians who arrived to the Ethiopian town of Adwa on Friday February 14, Ethiopian authorities said today.
Some 622 Ethiopians, who were sent away by the Sheabian government from various towns of Eritrea, arrived to Adwa town on Friday, Adwa woreda disaster prevention and preparedness office announced.
Hailemariam Tekalign, the head of Adwa woreda disaster prevention and preparedness office stated that these Ethiopians constitute the 83rd group expelled by the Eritrean government.
Some 39 of the evacuees, including women, were locked in Eritrean prisons, the official ENA reported.
Eritrea gained independence from Ethiopia after a referendum in 1993. Relations between the two countries deteriorated after that, culminating in the 1998-2000 border war. A December 2000 peace agreement ended the war, but failed to address the plight of those who had been deported.
Since both countries practiced expulsion and deportation against the national of the other country. The plight of some 75,000 ethnic Eritreans who were living in Ethiopia when the war broke out in 1998 has yet to be resolved, said a HRW report.
Ethiopians living in Eritrea suffered a similar plight in 1998. A few months after the war broke out, the Eritrean government interned some 7,500 people and deported thousands, the report added.
Hailemariam said that the returnees would get financial assistance so that they will manage to travel to their respective localities and engage in various income generating activities.
He further said that close to one million Birr was distributed among 378 Ethiopian returnees who arrived back to their home land from Eritrea last December.
(ST)