Documentary recalls controversial Eritreans' repatriation from Malta

The plight of a big group of Eritreans, who had been deported from Malta in 2002 and repatriated amid international criticism levelled at the Maltese authorities, is immortalised in a documentary entitled Eritrea: Voices Of Torture.

The documentary was previewed yesterday by the Graffitti movement at a seminar organised by the General Workers' Union Youths. It will form part of a campaign the NGO intends to mount in the coming days.

The case had given rise to complaints by foreign NGOs after news broke out in 2004 that the 220 or so deportees had been arrested and in many cases brutally tortured immediately upon their return to the troubled African state.

The documentary chronicles their journey and features interviews with three survivors who recalled how they were immediately apprehended upon arriving in Eritrea and then repeatedly tortured until somehow, many months later, they escaped. The unlucky ones died in the process, often shot as they tried to escape, while others languished in jail.

Two of the interviewees now live in Canada and Denmark where they enjoy refugee status.

An inquiry called by the government in 2004 had concluded that the process leading to the deportation of the Eritreans was "regular and according to the law", save for a minor procedural element that did not affect the merits of the decision itself.

Justice and Home Affairs Minister Tonio Borg, who had personally come under fire, particularly from Amnesty International, for his handling of the issue, had commented positively on the inquiry's conclusions.

The Eritreans, according to the inquiry findings, did not want to apply for asylum but wanted to continue their journey to Sicily instead. They were repatriated on four charter flights during September and October 2002.

The Eritreans that were eventually deported had opted not to apply for refugee status, even when it was pointed out to them that such action meant they were no longer seeking international protection. There were international calls by human rights organisations for the Eritreans not to be deported because of the civil unrest in Eritrea. However, the minister had defended the decision on grounds that at the time the UN refugee agency UNHCR was saying that Eritrea was a safe country.

The documentary was produced by an Eritrean refugee, Elsa Chyrum, for Human Rights Concern - Eritrea.