‘As a young man in Eritrea, you don’t have any dreams’

Can you imagine fighting for your country, only to have it reject you?

“That’s what happened to me. My name is Benyam, and I am an Eritrean refugee. I fought for my country’s independence, joining the Eritrean People’s Liberation Front when I was just 12 years old! But after Eritrea gained independence from Ethiopia, things began to go wrong very quickly. Though we had fought for freedom, many Eritreans, including myself, were still not free.

My decision to become a Pentecostal Christian led to the government trying to intimidate me into renouncing my faith. The very same freedoms I had fought for started to seem a very long way away...”
(cont’d)

Treated as a slave

“National service allows the Eritrean government to treat us as modern-day slaves. All Eritreans are forced into national service until the age of 60. For many of us, that’s our whole life. Eritrea is one of the world’s most repressive nations - a single party state that has been ruled for more than 20 years under a cruel dictator. There is no freedom of expression, no freedom of religion or belief. Everything has to be controlled by the state.

So, when I changed my religion from government-approved orthodox Christianity to Pentecostal Christianity in 1998, this was unacceptable. Christians are considered a threat to the state and Pentecostal Christianity is seen as a new and imported religion. Anyone who does not follow this is an enemy of the people, an enemy of the state. The government tried to force me back to orthodox Christianity, often violently.

“Fearing for my future, I decided to flee”

As a young man in Eritrea, you don’t have any dreams. You can’t move freely from place to place without having an ID card. Fearing a future of religious persecution and indefinite military service, I decided to flee. I set off on foot towards the border with Sudan. It took me many long, difficult and fearful days to escape my home country. More than anything else, I wanted to get to Sudan. It seemed like the Promised Land to me. Eventually, I was able to cross the border and escape to Sudan. However, Sudan wasn’t the safe haven I imagined. I lived in fear of being abducted, as the Eritrean government took many people from inside Sudan back to face imprisonment and death, often abducting them. I had to travel further afield to be truly safe, eventually arriving in the UK.

Even then, my journey wasn’t over, as I had to formally apply to stay here. In 2006 I was finally granted leave to remain. Since then I have lived openly as a Pentecostal Christian. I can pray day and night as I wish! I feel secure and treated with dignity. I never knew what freedom meant before, but now I walk in freedom. I was even able to continue the education that was interrupted so long ago, earning a degree in politics from Nottingham Trent University.

I’m so grateful to the British people and government that have taken me in and allowed me to live freely. I was lucky! I didn’t go to one of the desert prisons where people are kept in shipping containers or in pitch-black solitary confinement for weeks on end. I was able to leave. Many of my brothers and sisters cannot, or try to flee and die along the way. You cannot be a Christian in Eritrea. You cannot be free.

Our work in Eritrea - the story so far

• 2003: CSW begins working on Eritrea after Eritrean Christians ask for our help in the wake of church closures in 2002, and an ensuing wave of arrests.
• 2004: First annual protest outside the Eritrean embassy in London.
• 2009: We submit evidence to UN hearings on Eritrea’s human rights.
• 2010: The European Parliament passes a resolution on Eritrean refugees being held hostage by people traffickers in Egypt, after CSW issues an urgent joint appeal with other organisations for international intervention.
• 2009-2010: CSW and Human Rights Concern Eritrea (HRCE), among others, lobby official country representatives at the UN for action on Eritrea’s human rights.
• 2011: Breakthrough when Somalia makes a statement at the UN on the human rights crisis in Eritrea – the first time the crisis has been addressed at UN level.
• 2012: UN Special Rapporteur appointed to investigate human rights in Eritrea.
• 2014: UN Commission of Inquiry (COI) established to report on Eritrea’s human rights. CSW testifies to the Commission.
• 2015: The COI is tasked with investigating crimes against humanity in Eritrea.