The Foreign Relations Office of the Eritrean People’s Democratic Party (EPDP) has this week paid gratitude to the UNHCR High

In a message sent to the High Commissioner on 16 January, the EPDP Foreign Office expressed deep satisfaction to Mr. Guterres and his UNHCR delegation for giving attention to the difficulties faced by Eritrean refugees in the Sudan, both old and new caseloads.

Mr. Antonio Guterres at Shagarab with Eritrean refugees in Eastern Sudan

Shagarab is a huge refugee reception camp on the Eritrea-Sudan border where about 2,000 Eritrean refugees arrive every month.

The EPDP message, addressed to Mr. Guterres, and copied to the Africa Bureau at the UNHCR headquarters, believed that the High Commissioner and his delegation could have the opportunity of discussing with the refugees some of their major worries, including the following burning issues:

1. The tragedy Eritrean refugees encounter in the hands of  human traffickers for ransom and organ harvesting;
2. The delay of  lasting solutions to Eritrean refugees, some of them in the region for over four decades;
3. The lack of sufficient resources to address the most urgent needs of the refugees.

However, the message was not only a Thank U note but also a sharp call to UNHCR and other concerned agencies to do more to help Eritrean refugees in a more serious manner.  Parts of the EPDP message included the following paragraphs:

“The time has come for the international community to consider the regime in Asmara as non-existent, and instead think of what can be done to help at least the big number of Eritrean refugees in the Horn of Africa region.

“On our part [as EPDP], we have been reminding the European Union and other regional bodies and UN member States to channel the grants and other aid money they have frozen from reaching the regime in Eritrea to those refugees in the Sudan and Ethiopia. With this money, UNHCR and other concerned agencies could be able to take care of the welfare of those hundreds of thousands who fled and are still fleeing Eritrea. The EU alone has recently frozen over €50 million from reaching the regime in Eritrea for its non-compliance with vital terms of the agreement in relation to good governance and respect to human rights. The millions of funds frozen because of the bad behaviour of the Eritrean regime should be used to help the Eritrean refugees in the Horn of Africa and other regions of the world.....”