An Understated Migration Crisis: Eritreans Cross Disputed Border To Ethiopia

While attention is focused, amidst the intensifying migration crisis, on Syrians fleeing from civil war to Europe, the exodus from the smaller Eritrea is proportionally more extreme. While the relations between the neighbouring countries of cc and Ethiopia is tense, some Eritreans still find themselves crossing the disputed border. Badme, a small town along this border and the focus of dispute, was where a historic war once broke out in 1998. The war lasted for two years and devastated both countries. In 2002, a Hague boundary commission ruled that Badme was part of Eritrea – a ruling that both countries initially accepted. However, Ethiopian troops continued to occupy the town. Nowadays, there remains a standoff between the two countries armies along the contested border a few kilometres north of Badme, at the tip of Ethiopian Yirga Triangle jutting into Eritrea.

The current situation has civilians moving along the border, trying to keep out of the sight of their own military, to escape into Ethiopia. Travelling through the region’s hills, they are subject to persecution if found attempting to flee the nation. These refugees are leaving behind one of the world’s fastest-emptying nations: a country of about 4.5 million. The Horn of Africa, governed by a secretive dictatorship accused of human-rights violations, is playing an outsize role in the biggest global migration crisis since World War II. Once Eritrean refugees enter Ethiopia, they are picked up by the Ethiopian army and transported to Badme’s so-called “entry point,” a group of simple buildings that marks the start of their journey to asylum.

There are 12 entry points along the shared 910-kilometre border where refugees are moved to a screening and registration centre in the town of Endabunga. Refugees are assigned to one of four refugees camps in the Tigray region bordering Eritrea. According to the Ethiopian Administration for Refugee and Returnee affairs, 3,367 Eritrean refugees arrived in Ethiopia in February. The U.N estimates that 400,000 Eritreans – 9% of the population- have fled in recent years. The Histats camp coordinator, Haftam Telemickael, takes issue with the Western debate about whether Eritreans should be labelled as political or economic migrants. “Even if they’re seeking political asylum, there will be an economic side to it as they are young and need to generate income to live their lives.” For now, Eritreans are only focused on their immediate future and how to escape a nation on the decline.

S.M. Murtasim Shah

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