Stop Human Trafficking in Sinai; Stop the Oppression and Slavery in Eritrea
We, citizens of the United States of America, are deeply concerned about the humanitarian crisis that has developed in Eritrea and have the moral obligation to stand up for what is right and be the voice for the voiceless.
As you are well aware, Eritrea has been run by a brutal regime that subjects the people to untold suffering through a totalitarian system for over two decades. Due to the injustice inflicted upon them by this regime, thousands languish in numerous prisons, metal shipping containers and underground cells and, according to Amnesty International ¹, under ?atrocious conditions?. Others remain in indefinite servitude in a ?national service? program which amounts to, according to Human Rights Watch ², ?forced labor? and slavery. The USCIRFᴲ has also been calling for economic measures against the mining companies who are providing funds to the regime to continue to perpetrate gross human rights violations and religious persecution.
The people of Eritrea have very little options but to endure this oppression. Those who manage to escape dodging bullets through the regime?s ?shoot to kill? policy along the borders find themselves in dangerous refugee camps throughout the region where human traffickers prey upon them. Thousands have trekked through the Sudan, the Sahara Desert, Libya, and Egypt looking for safety and protection only to be met, according to Father Musie Zerai⁴, with horrendous prisons in Libya and with detention camps in the Sinai Desert where they endure severe beatings, rape and torture in the hands of human traffickers. A CNN report⁵ in 2011 exposed a horrific account, including evidence of organ harvesting. And a U.N. panel of experts, the Somalia Eritrea Monitoring Group⁶, found high-level officials of the regime in Eritrea complicit in, if not profiteering from, human trafficking.
Honorable Representative, these conditions are unacceptable in any day and age. After all, the Eritrean people had gone through over a century of brutality under successive colonial regimes and, after having achieved their hard won independence, they remain in bondage today under a cruel regime whose brutality is unmatched by any of the previous colonial regimes. A recent press release by UNCHR Special Rapporteur⁷ for Eritrea, after visiting and conducting investigation in refugee camps in neighboring countries, called for the international community to put the regime in Eritrea under ?close scrutiny? for its ?blatant disrespect for human rights?.
We appeal to you, Honorable Representative, to do whatever you can to help the peace-loving people of Eritrea. We urge you to call for further U.S. and international actions to compel the regime in Eritrea to implement the constitution, release all prisoners of conscience, and comply with its human rights obligations. We ask of you to call for justice for the people of Eritrea including for the ICC to look into bringing those who are responsible for thes
As you are well aware, Eritrea has been run by a brutal regime that subjects the people to untold suffering through a totalitarian system for over two decades. Due to the injustice inflicted upon them by this regime, thousands languish in numerous prisons, metal shipping containers and underground cells and, according to Amnesty International ¹, under ?atrocious conditions?. Others remain in indefinite servitude in a ?national service? program which amounts to, according to Human Rights Watch ², ?forced labor? and slavery. The USCIRFᴲ has also been calling for economic measures against the mining companies who are providing funds to the regime to continue to perpetrate gross human rights violations and religious persecution.
The people of Eritrea have very little options but to endure this oppression. Those who manage to escape dodging bullets through the regime?s ?shoot to kill? policy along the borders find themselves in dangerous refugee camps throughout the region where human traffickers prey upon them. Thousands have trekked through the Sudan, the Sahara Desert, Libya, and Egypt looking for safety and protection only to be met, according to Father Musie Zerai⁴, with horrendous prisons in Libya and with detention camps in the Sinai Desert where they endure severe beatings, rape and torture in the hands of human traffickers. A CNN report⁵ in 2011 exposed a horrific account, including evidence of organ harvesting. And a U.N. panel of experts, the Somalia Eritrea Monitoring Group⁶, found high-level officials of the regime in Eritrea complicit in, if not profiteering from, human trafficking.
Honorable Representative, these conditions are unacceptable in any day and age. After all, the Eritrean people had gone through over a century of brutality under successive colonial regimes and, after having achieved their hard won independence, they remain in bondage today under a cruel regime whose brutality is unmatched by any of the previous colonial regimes. A recent press release by UNCHR Special Rapporteur⁷ for Eritrea, after visiting and conducting investigation in refugee camps in neighboring countries, called for the international community to put the regime in Eritrea under ?close scrutiny? for its ?blatant disrespect for human rights?.
We appeal to you, Honorable Representative, to do whatever you can to help the peace-loving people of Eritrea. We urge you to call for further U.S. and international actions to compel the regime in Eritrea to implement the constitution, release all prisoners of conscience, and comply with its human rights obligations. We ask of you to call for justice for the people of Eritrea including for the ICC to look into bringing those who are responsible for thes
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