London rights group angry over deportation of Eritreans

The London-based group Eritreans for Human and Democratic Rights yesterday said the Home Affairs Ministry was wrong to believe that the Eritreans Malta had sent back home were safe.

EHDR-UK executive director Dawit Mesfin said the government had "misjudged the whole event and ended the hopes of freedom-seeking Eritreans unreasonably".

Last week, the Home Affairs Ministry said there was no evidence that the deported Eritreans, who arrived as illegal immigrants, had been tortured upon their return.

The ministry had said that "reliable contacts" in Eritrea had dismissed claims that the deportees had been detained and tortured in a prison upon arrival.

Malta recently deported 223 Eritreans who arrived as illegal immigrants.

EHDR-UK described comments made by a ministry spokesman, who said that the main interest of "this London-based movement is to create unrest in Eritrea", as impudent and fictitious.

EHDR-UK said it worked towards promoting the human and democratic rights of all Eritreans inside and outside Eritrea as stated in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

It said the unruly leadership in Eritrea was known for its totalitarian rule of the region and many renowned organisations such as the European Union, had condemned it explicitly in the past.

"We would have expected the Maltese government to follow the path the EU has already set, instead of coming to the defence of the Eritrean regime, which is clearly on the wrong side of the fence, and its own slip-up in deporting defenceless Eritrean citizens."

"EHDR-UK can categorically establish that the Eritrean leadership has literally turned against its own citizens and impoverished the country by plunging it into successive wars. And the situation is still worsening."

The country is also on the verge of going to war with neighbouring Sudan.

In order to justify the government's inappropriate action, it said the ministry spokesman "was economical with the truth" and chose to reproduce the official Eritrean version of the story - that those deported were safe.

"The officials in Eritrea cannot be expected to state that the deportees are being detained and mistreated.

"Although obscure, we find the spokesman's statement obvious because the Maltese government seems to find it hard to admit that it jeopardised the lives of innocent Eritreans by deporting them hastily," it said.

EHDR-UK is of the belief that the refugees cannot be blamed for not asking for political asylum in time.

"We believe technicalities are secondary when it comes to saving people's lives," the organisation held.