CSW seeks urgent action from EU over Eritrea human rights abuses

CSW took part in a special hearing on Thursday urging the European Union to take urgent action over its policy on serious human rights violations in Eritrea.

Presentations on the dire situation of Eritrean refugees took place in the European Parliament, hosted by Portuguese MEP, Ana Gomes.

CSW, one of the co-organisers, presented an overview of the religious liberty situation in Eritrea, where over 2,000 Christians are still detained without charge or trial in centres where human rights abuses occur routinely.

CSW representative, Dr Khataza Gondwe, explained how the Eritrean Government has systematically targeted all religious groups, including Jehovah's Witnesses, Evangelicals, Orthodox and Muslims. She called on EU officials to push for access to prisons and detention centres.

Mr Kebreab Yimesgen Hailegiorgis, co-founder and former General Secretary of the Eritrean Evangelical Alliance for Africa and the Middle East, also addressed the assembly, sharing his personal experience of close friends, neighbours and colleagues being 'disappeared' by the Eritrean Government.

Mr Hailegiorgis called for independent observers to visit the country in order to examine the plight of its prisoners: "These prisoners are detained solely for their religious beliefs. None have been officially charged or brought before a recognised court of law. They are held for weeks, months, even years in police stations, open air facilities in military camps and ordinary jails.

"Some are held, either in isolation, or with others in metal shipping containers, in cramped, poorly ventilated cells, in underground cells, and even in sealed caves. Many have been subjected to torture, and some have died during or as a consequence of it, while others have been disabled."

Tina Lambert, CSW's Advocacy Director said it was a "travesty" that the situation in Eritrea had received so little attention from the international community, "and that this silence has been interpreted by the Eritrean regime as tacit support for its brutal policies".

"We urge the European Union to put respect for human rights at the top of its priorities in its relations with Eritrea and make their concerns crystal clear to the regime," she said. "The Eritrean people have already suffered for far too long."