Tesfalem Araia
“We are terrified. Only death awaits us if we are deported to Eritrea,” two Eritreans detained in Egypt have been quoted by rights group Amnesty International as saying.
Amnesty – along with other groups and activists – have launched a campaign to secure the release of Kibrom Adhanom Okbazghi and Alem Tesfay Abraham, and to prevent their deportation.
The campaign was launched following reports that the deportation of the two – detained without charge in Egypt for more than eight years – was imminent.
Eritrean advocacy groups say the two fled indefinite military conscription, which is mandatory for most young Eritreans.
Amnesty said their deportation would be a “grave” breach of international law.
They should be released and given “immediate access to asylum procedures”, it added.
The Egyptian authorities have not yet commented.
Over the last two decades, hundreds of thousands of Eritreans have fled the country and many have died trying to cross the Sahara desert and the Mediterranean Sea to Europe.
The Eritrean government is accused of human rights violations, including forced conscription, religious persecution, and political repression, which it denies.
In 2018 an Eritrean migrant, who was deported from the US, took his life at the airport in Cairo, while on the way to Eritrea.
Source: BBC
