ERINA Update
(Eritrean News Agency,
Tel: ++291-1-117627, Fax: 127385)
Friday, December 11, 1998

Nuns, Pregnant Women Among Latest Eritrean Deportees

Wednesday, January 13, 1999

Eight hundred sixty Eritreans deported from Ethiopia through the Burie frontline arrived yesterday in Assab. Several pregnant women and unaccompanied children as well as a group of Catholic nuns and monks arrived with this latest batch of deportees. The nuns were deported from Arbaba in Gondar. Despite the fact that these sisters served from a home with no electricity, they were rounded up under charges of transmitting information by phone and fax to the government of Eritrea. Many of the deportees had been detained for up to four months prior to their expulsion.

As is increasingly the case, the deportees said that, relative to the plight of many Eritreans who remain detained or victims of official larceny, deportation was far more agreeable. All of the deportees spoke of their concern for friends and relatives who remain detained and secluded from humanitarian and medical attention. Thousands of Eritreans and Ethiopians of Eritrean origin have been illegally detained for eight months. Death tolls continue to rise in these camps which remain full despite international calls for the release of all the detainees. Eritrea has received and registered over 49,000 Eritreans deported from Ethiopia.

Veronica Rentmeesters, Information Officer
Embassy of Eritrea to the US
1708 New Hampshire Ave NW, Washington DC 20009, USA
TEL: 202 319 1991 FAX: 202 319 1304

E-M: veronicX@embassyeritrea.org

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