[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 162 (2016), Part 9]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page 12908]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                  ERITREA: A NEGLECTED REGIONAL THREAT

                                 ______
                                 

                       HON. CHRISTOPHER H. SMITH

                             of new jersey

                    in the house of representatives

                      Thursday, September 15, 2016

  Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Mr. Speaker, in 1993, the citizens of 
Eritrea, then a province of Ethiopia, voted to become an independent 
nation. Ethiopia had annexed Eritrea in 1962, and its citizens no doubt 
believed they were well on their way to controlling their destiny. 
Unfortunately, their hopes would soon be dashed. Elections have been 
repeatedly postponed, and opposition political parties are no longer 
able to organize.
  Those same initial hopes for democracy and good government in Eritrea 
also were held by the international community. In a March 1997 report 
on the U.S. Agency for International Development program in Eritrea, 
the American aid agency had high praise for its collaboration with the 
Eritrean government: ``Over the past year, the young state of Eritrea 
continued its exciting and pace-setting experiment in nation-building, 
and, similarly, USAID/Eritrea established itself as Eritrea's leading 
development partner.''
  Within a few years, the Government of Eritrea ended its relationship 
with USAID, but this decision was originally taken as a sign that 
Eritrea was ready to become an example to the rest of the developing 
world by managing its own humanitarian needs. Yet Eritrea's government 
instead merely became less open, and when an East African drought 
occurred in 2011, we knew very little about how Eritreans were faring. 
Today, we know that two-thirds of Eritreans live on subsistence 
agriculture, which has had poor yields due to recurring droughts and 
low productivity.
  What we also know is that Eritrea's citizens are living under a 
regime that does not honor their human rights. In June of this year, 
the UN Human Rights Council released a report that accused the 
Government of Eritrea with a variety of violations, including 
extrajudicial executions, torture, indefinitely prolonged national 
service and forced labor, and sexual harassment, rape and sexual 
servitude by state officials.
  In its Trafficking in Persons Report from June 2016, the State 
Department listed Eritrea as `Tier 3' and stated, ``Eritrea is a source 
country for men, women, and children subjected to forced labor . . . 
the government did not investigate, prosecute, or convict trafficking 
offenders during the reporting year . . . the government demonstrated 
negligible efforts to identify and protect trafficking victims . . . 
the government maintained minimal efforts to prevent trafficking.''
  In their most recent International Religious Freedom Report, the 
State Department listed Eritrea as a Country of Particular Concern. 
Moreover, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom lists 
Eritrea as a Tier 1 Country of Particular Concern for its egregious 
religious freedom violations. Eritrea's government interferes with the 
internal affairs of registered religious groups and represses the 
religious liberty of those faith groups it refuses to register, such as 
Evangelical and Pentecostal Christians, Jehovah's Witnesses and Muslims 
who do not follow the government-appointed head of the Islamic 
community. Furthermore, the government has a record of arbitrary 
arrests of believers and their leaders and reportedly tortures those in 
prolonged detention.
  As a result of the authoritarian government's actions, Eritrea is 
considered one of the world's fastest emptying nations, with about half 
a million of the country's citizens having left their homes for often 
dangerous paths to freedom. An estimated 5,000 Eritreans leave their 
country each month.
  In a July 9, 2015, hearing by our subcommittee on African refugees, 
John Stauffer, President of the America Team for Displaced Eritreans, 
told us that Eritrean Government officials operated freely in eastern 
Sudan, arresting and bringing back to Eritrea those they considered 
high-value targets among refugees, such as government officials or 
church leaders. He also testified that refugees moving east may be 
kidnapped and extorted locally for a few thousand dollars, or taken off 
to Egypt or Libya where they are abused. That abuse often included 
organ harvesting.
  In the past year, the world has witnessed a flood of Eritrean 
refugees risking their lives on too-often unseaworthy boats bound for 
Europe. The prevalence of Eritreans among refugees has been 
overshadowed by refugees from the Middle East, especially Syria. The 
United Kingdom, one of the prime destinations for Eritrean refugees, 
apparently wanted to slow down the flow of Eritreans into the country. 
Earlier this year, the UK reduced the percentage of Eritrean asylum 
claims from 95 percent to 28 percent.
  Directly addressing the root causes of the flight of Eritreans seems 
a better policy than trying to determine the final destination of 
Eritreans who feel forced to leave home. That means an enhanced level 
of communication between Eritrea's government and the international 
community. There have been quiet contacts between Eritrea's government, 
the U.S. Government, and civil society. A hearing I convened yesterday 
examined how such contacts have developed.
  Can the United States form a relationship with a government it has 
under sanction?
  Does the dire situation in which Eritrea's people live require an 
alteration of U.S. policy?
  What would a change in policy mean for the international effort to 
hold Eritrea's government responsible for blatant human rights 
violations?
  These and other questions must be answered before there is any policy 
adjustment toward Eritrea.

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