Denmark’s Response to Eritrean Exodus

The UN Refugee Agency reports that the number of refugees from the African nation of Eritrea to Europe has tripled in 2014. They are comparing numbers from January through Oct in each year. For 2013 that number was 12,960. In 2014, it rose to about 36,678, making Eritrean refugees the second largest group seeking asylum, after Syrians.

The main reason given for the Eritrean exodus is the country’s mandatory conscription, requiring open-ended service in the country’s armed forces, as well as a shoot-on-sight policy implemented against anyone attempting to leave the country. The majority of those fleeing cross the border into either Sudan or Ethiopia, including many unaccompanied minors.

European countries may share the Euro, but they don’t share immigration policies. Denmark, for example, decided to impose a ban on the influx in order to study the problem when officials became concerned over possible human trafficking. After a 3-week investigation, the Danish Justice Ministry announced on Tuesday, November 26 that the ban on Eritrean refugees had been lifted but the criteria for granting asylum will be much more strict going forward.

The study revealed that there may have been some truth to the shoot-to-kill policy targeting Eritreans who leave the country illegally previously but “people are no longer being shot at just because they try to cross the border into Ethiopia”. The report (which is available in English here) goes on to say that people who evade or desert from Eritrea’s National Service and later return “would be detained for a short period of time, i.e. a couple of days or one week, and then re-enrolled in National Service. As an additional punishment, they could be sent off to duties at military posts near the Ethiopian border.” Consequently, the Danish Immigration Service concluded that Eritreans will now need to show that they face a personal threat in order to be granted asylum in Denmark.

At the same time, countries that border the Mediterranean sea have called for suspension of the Dublin Regulation, which requires immigrants seeking asylum to register in the country they entered first. Italy, Malta, Cyprus, Spain, and Greece feel that a disproportionate burden isn’t being thrust upon them.

Pope Francis addressed a group of European leaders on Tuesday, November 25, to make a plea for a united response in helping immigrants, pointing to the many who have died on the voyage across the Mediterranean Sea. “We cannot allow the Mediterranean to become a vast cemetery,” the pontiff said, and he exhorted European nations to work together to protect immigrants from human traffickers.