Seeking Refuge and Asylum

Crossing The Border

Into Ethiopia and Sudan

The largest numbers of Eritrean refugees have escaped by land. When they have first crossed an overland border, their experiences have differed, depending on whether they have fled to Ethiopia, Sudan or elsewhere.  Each of those two countries, working in concert with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), for many years commonly accepted the arrivals as lawful, or at least as”prima facie,” refugees.  But the refugees’ circumstances have remained fragile, and shifting.

Sudan

In recent years some refugees in Sudan were kidnapped en route to refugee camps, en route to or in major urban centers, or even within the camps themselves.  The kidnappers were either traffickers who would sell the hostages for purposes of extortion and torture, or Eritrean agents who would drag the hostages back to Eritrea to be imprisoned, tortured or killed. In early 2015, UNHCR reported that almost all female survivors of the trafficking in Sudan whom it had identified in 2014 had been sexually assaulted or raped.  Of great concern were reports, continuing through at least 2017, that the Sudanese government itself, sometimes through its notorious Janjaweed militias (later reconstituted and officially embraced by the government as the Rapid Security Forces [RSF]), had been arresting Eritrean refugees and refouling, or deporting, them back to Eritrea, where a dire fate awaited them.  In mid-2017, reports of significant numbers of Eritreans so arrested and refouled arose repeatedly. In 2022 and early 2023 (if not before), Sudanese police frequently arrested, detained and extorted for cash Eritrean refugees living in the capital, Khartoum, and sometimes in eastern Sudan.

In mid-2023, when a horrific armed conflict between the RSF and Sudanese government troops (the Sudanese Armed Forces [SAF]) began, the police appeared to have stopped abusing the refugees. But the RSF – soon in control of Khartoum – picked up where the police had left off: robbing, raping and killing Eritrean refugees there. Many fled to Eastern Sudan, where Eritrean refugees had lived for several generations. But there Eritrean agents — with the apparent complicity of Sudanese authorities — began kidnapping the newly arriving Eritrean refugees (those from Khartoum) and abducting them to Eritrea, to meet an uncertain fate. Other Eritreans fled from Sudan to South Sudan, Uganda, Chad and Egypt. Many more fled to Ethiopia, where they (together with Sudanese refugees) were received in several new UNHCR camps near Sudan’s border. However, health and security conditions in those camps were appalling: cholera outbreaks were common and local residents frequently robbed and attacked the refugees. As a consequence, many Eritreans fled onward to Ethiopia’s capital Addis Ababa or to Kenya. But in Addis the Ethiopian government forbade them from enjoying UNHCR registration, support and protection; and Kenyan police often arrested and jailed them, sometimes colluding with smugglers. Meanwhile, by 2024, the Eritrean government had allied with the SAF against the RSF (described in this website at The Repression Avalanches: Eritrea in Sudan, Again) — to the point of establishing a military presence in and training pro-SAF troops within Eastern Sudan. There the Eritrean refugees that remained in Eastern Sudan became vulnerable to potential attacks by Eritrean forces such as had occurred, with devastating effect, at the Eritrean refugee camps in Tigray.

Ethiopia

In June 2018, Ethiopia and Eritrea embarked on a radically new and hopeful peace initiative between the two countries.  In September 2018 their border was officially opened, which resulted in many thousands of Eritreans fleeing to Ethiopia. The border closed again, but it became more porous, and thousands have continued to flee.  Many of those fleeing appeared to wish to stay in Ethiopia, while others seemed bound for neighboring countries and Europe.  At least to an extent, the trafficking abuses occurring in Sudan have appeared to afflict those undertaking forward migration from Ethiopia as well.

Those who arrived in Ethiopia had long been relatively safe there. But following the rapprochement with Eritrea, many refugees came to fear that the Ethiopian government would refoule them to Eritrea through some arrangement with the Eritrean regime. In addition, beginning in early 2020, with some exceptions, Ethiopia stopped granting prima facie refugee status to newly arriving Eritreans. At least some of the new refugees did not have ready access to the refugee camps, and thus, reportedly, they had become homeless and destitute.

And then, in November, came the war in Tigray – when the Ethiopian government encouraged Eritrean forces to enter that Ethiopian region and wage barbaric war on the Tigrayans. The Ethiopian government also allowed the Eritrean forces to horrifically abuse the Eritrean refugees in Tigray and elsewhere in Ethiopia. That savage violation of international law and the devastating impact on Eritrean refugees is described by The America Team here and below on this page under “The Trying Life in a Refugee Camp.”

The Tigray war ended in November 2022. But since then, Ethiopia has continued denying refugee status to newly arrived Eritreans; and in June 2023 Ethiopia deported hundreds of Eritrean refugees to Eritrea — a gross violation of international law — all as described by the United Nations here.

In addition, Eritrean refugees who, during the war, had fled from Tigray to a UNHCR facility in the Amhara Region called Alemwach continued, through late 2024, to suffer kidnapping, extortion, theft, assault and murder at the hands of Amhara residents and even Alemwach’s government-supplied guards, as described here.

The circumstances of the refugees in Ethiopia continued to deteriorate. The Ethiopian government proposed in November 2024 to move an unspecified number of Eritrean refugees to a new camp to be built in the inhospitable and insecure Afar Region, as described here. And following weeks of increasing government harassment of Eritrean refugees in Ethiopia’s capital Addis Ababa by way of detention and extortion as described here, in December 2024 the government began, once more, rounding up large numbers of Eritreans in Addis and sending them north to Eritrea — yet again violating international law.

So altogether, Ethiopia was no longer a safe haven for Eritrean refugees; but those who already lived there were trapped, with most having no other place to safely flee.

Into Djibouti and Saudi Arabia

Indeterminate numbers of Eritreans have escaped their country into Djibouti. Reportedly tens of thousands of Eritreans have migrated to Saudi Arabia, where they were initially able to subsist and some flourished as guest workers. But thousands have now been subjected to punitive taxes there and have become either trapped in or forced out of the country, with many fleeing to Egypt, Uganda, Ethiopia and Sudan.

Into Yemen

Some Eritreans have escaped their country by boat, across the Red Sea, to Yemen.  In the spring of 2015, as the security of Yemen disintegrated due to that country’s sectarian civil war, Eritrean refugees came to be stranded there, at great peril to their lives.  Many were and remain without work, without adequate food, endangered by the military hostilities, and unable to leave the country.  Many are afraid to walk on the streets, for fear of kidnapping or of injury from military actions.

Into Kenya and Uganda

For many years, some Eritreans have fled southward, to Kenya (from Ethiopia) and to Uganda (from Kenya). Since the civil war in Sudan began in 2023, a wave of Eritreans who had been living in that country or in Ethiopia have fled to Kenya and Uganda. 

Kenya

The reception of Eritrean refugees in Kenya has been mixed. Most have settled in urban areas, where local and international assistance is limited. In the 2020s, Eritreans have been arrested and deported from time to time — including some who have claimed to have been en route to South Africa. From 2023 into 2025, new Eritrean arrivals in Kenya, driven there by the war in Sudan, have had difficulty registering with or being assisted by Kenyan authorities as refugees. They have often been denied opportunities for resettlement in third countries, detained, extorted for ransom by traffickers and police, and threatened by governmental authorities with deportation to Ethiopia or Eritrea. As recently as November 2024 some Eritreans who had arrived years earlier were imprisoned and extorted for ransom. Some who seek to flee Kenya for Uganda are extorted for ransom by the traffickers engaged to transport them.

Uganda

Uganda has been a happier home for Eritreans than Kenya. The first material migration to Uganda occurred during Eritrea’s War of Independence (1961-1991). The Eritreans eventually established a viable community there, particularly in the capital Kampala. Many of them founded small businesses, some of which came to enjoy good commercial relations with Eritrea. Thus, although many Eritreans in Uganda are impoverished, many have become comfortable, and many appear to be loyal to the Isaias regime. In May 2022 the Eritrean community built its fourth (Orthodox) church in Kampala — a seemingly spectacular edifice. In December 2024 the Ugandan government welcomed a large conference of diaspora Eritrean investors in Kampala.

Refugees arriving in recent years have still been generally tolerated by Ugandan society, although (like urban refugees in many countries) often lacking adequate support from the host country, international organizations, and sometimes, in this case, even the prior waves of Ugandan arrivals. Endemic corruption compromises the refugee status and experience of many. In several instances in recent years, prominent Eritrean defectors — fearing violence or abduction at the hands of Eritrean agents operating within Uganda — lived miserably in secret locations for lengthy periods, unable to achieve resettlement in safer countries. Following the outbreak of civil war in Sudan, between 2023 and 2024 Ugandan government attempts to deport over 180 Eritreans occurred. In July 2024 over 150 Eritrean business people were arrested on grounds of trade infractions, possibly as scapegoats for Uganda’s internal economic difficulties. In January 2025 reports emerged that the new wave of arrivals from Sudan and Ethiopia was reportedly less welcome in Uganda generally, and that new registrations of Eritrean refugees could be suspended.