A Call to All Eritreans to Join the Protest Demonstration against the Israeli Government’s Planned Deportation of Eritrean Refugees!

2015-04-29 09:28:15 Written by  Drs. Tsegezab Gebregergis: Spokesperson and Coordinator of the Geneva Demonstration Published in English Articles Read 3454 times

London, April 28, 2015

As most of you are acutely aware, there are thousands of Eritrean refugees in Israel awaiting a decision from the Israeli government for their application to be given the status of political refugees. Much to our dismay, we have recently learned that the Israeli government has made a definite plan and is preparing to deport the thousands of Eritrean political refugees to Uganda and Ruanda in exchange for financial rewards and arms. In order to justify the planned illegal deportation of Eritrean refugees, the Israeli government has stated and forwarded fallacious and quasi-racist arguments, such as that the presence of the thousands of Eritrean refugees in Israel is a threat to the Jewish character of the Israeli State. 

We, the members of the Eritrean refuge communities in Europe, North America, Canada, Australia and elsewhere consider the planned action of the Israeli government to deport Eritrean refugees against their will to Uganda and Ruanda in exchange for arms and money to be not only an indefensible and immoral act, but also illegal. It is illegal because it clearly and crudely violates the letter and spirit of the 1951 Geneva Convention governing refugees, and is incompatible with the international norms set by the United Nations, to which the Israeli government is a signatory.

Furthermore, it also illegal because the 1951 Refugee Conventions clearly state that “No Contracting State shall expel or return (“refouler”) a refugee in any manner whatsoever to the frontiers of territories where the freedom and safety of a refugee would be threatened.”

We therefore call upon all Eritreans in Europe and elsewhere, and other democrats and human rights organisations, to join us at the planned protest demonstration on the 19th May 2015 in Geneva, Switzerland, to show active solidarity to our stressed compatriots and stringently oppose the planned deportation of Eritrean refugees by the Israeli government.

Drs. Tsegezab Gebregergis

Spokesperson and Coordinator of the Geneva Demonstration

Last modified on Wednesday, 29 April 2015 11:29