Eritrea blames international conspiracy for worsen exodus
By Tesfa-Alem Tekle
May 30, 2016 (ADDIS ABABA) – Eritrea said the huge exodus of tens of thousands of its citizens was the outcome of an international conspiracy supported by human smugglers.
The Minister denied that right violations were the causes for the increasing number of citizens fleeing the Red Sea nation.
He argued that the migration which he said was not peculiar to Eritrea instead was due search of improved opportunities oversees.
However Eritrean refugees who arrived in Ethiopia this year has told Sudan Tribune that poverty, political repression, different forms of right abuses, imprisonment, joblessness were main causes driving citizens flee their home country.
According to the refuges, military conscription and the indefinite service afterwards is forcing more and more young Eritreans leave their country.
At the conference, Saleh claimed that an international migration conspiracy is being used to tarnish nation’s image.
He said “sensationally manipulated statistics and the perceived number of Eritrean migrants frequently quoted by the UNHCR” had also become a tool of political disinformation to tarnish the image of Eritrea.
He alleged illegal migration had become a politically motivated agenda serving as part and parcel of a larger campaign to vilify, isolate and destabilize Eritrea.
“The youth has been the main target of the migratory conspiracy and protracted psychological warfare to lure them away from national defence and development responsibilities by attracting them to a promising heavenly life”
He added false and manipulated asylum cases have been orchestrated and used to project a false image of impending crisis so as to accuse the Eritrean Government.
The minister mentioned a statement by President Barack Obama back in 2012 as corroborating the alleged “conspiracy perpetuated to use Eritrean migration as a political tool”
He also added that “this criminal activity has the involvement of some countries, organizations, surrogate anti- Eritrean groups and pseudo-human right activists”
Eritrea also referred by international right groups as the North Korea of Africa is one among the world’s most oppressive nation.
According to the UN refugee agency (UNHCR), every month at least 5,000 citizens flee the Secretive east African nation.
In Ethiopia alone there are an estimated 100,000 Eritrean refugees sheltered in a number of refugee camps located near the common border.
Last year, Eritreans were recorded as the third largest group of people embarking on the perilous Mediterranean in a bid to cross to Europe.
Every month hundreds of Eritreans bound to Italy attempt to cross the Mediterranean from Libya however many of them end up perished.
(ST)