Current Items and Reports from Credible Sources, Pertaining to Eritrea and Eritrean Refugees and Asylum Seekers

24 Jehovah’s Witnesses Arrested Sept. 27, 2024

Transnational Repression by Eritrea’s Dictator:   Afwerki’s Long Arm in Canada — Human Rights Action Group – Canada — May 23 2024

U.N. Special Rapporteur Releases Report on Human Rights in Eritrea — May 7, 2024

Eritrean Regime’s Summer Festivals across the West Spawn Violence between Loyalists and Oppositionists (Partial List) — June-September, 2023:

Germany   Israel    Canada    Sweden    Switzerland    Norway

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The America Team in Action

The America Team conducts most of its operations confidentially.  Increasingly, however, the general nature of our work has come into the public eye, as exemplified by the following developments:

     1. Our president, John Stauffer, was quoted in The New York Times on May 5, 2015.

     2. John led a panel of experts in a discussion of Eritrean refugees at the United Nations High  Commissioner for Refugees’ annual Consultations for    Non-Governmental Organizations in Geneva, Switzerland on July 2, 2015.  The meeting was attended by NGOs from many countries. DOWNLOAD the 2-PAGE SUMMARY ABOUT ERITREAN REFUGEES.

     3. John testified before the United States House of Representatives’ Foreign Affairs Committee’s Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health, Global Human Rights, and International Organizations in Washington, DC on July 9, 2015.  SEE THE TESTIMONY.

     4. John was quoted in The New Yorker magazine in its December 12, 2016 edition.

     5. We are pleased to announce that a one-hour documentary film, REFUGEE: The Eritrean Exodus, has been produced by the film company Tailor Made Media, was released in early 2016, and is now available on DVD and Blu-ray disc.  It tells the story of Eritrean refugees – the nightmare from which they’re fleeing, the challenges and horrors they encounter on their flight to freedom, and much more.  The America Team assisted in the video’s production.  Many viewers have found the video compelling.  The trailer for the film is available on the video’s web site: http://www.theeritreanexodus.com. Also on that site, DVD/Blu-ray Disc sets can be ordered, and community screenings can be arranged.  We encourage you to see the film! 

     6. John led a panel of survivors and relatives of victims of abuse in Eritrea, in a discussion at the United Nations in New York on October 26, 2017 in conjunction with the Interactive Dialogue by Special Rapporteur for Human Rights in Eritrea Sheila Keetharuth with the General Assembly — see:  Press Release for Latest Perspective on Human Rights in Eritrea. 

     7. John was quoted in The Conversation on November 23, 2017 regarding the announced intention of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to deport some 700 Eritreans to Eritrea, where they would likely face torture or execution.

      8. On December 11, 2017, The America Team sent a letter — in which 78 other NGOs joined as additional signatories — to the U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security, the U.S. Secretary of State, the acting director of U.S  Customs and Immigration Enforcement, the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, and the four leading members of Congress tasked with immigration oversight, urging that the threatened deportation of some 700 Eritreans, under the Department of Homeland Security’s order of September 13, 2017, be suspended until Eritrea is safe for their return.  The letter can be viewed here.

      9. On September 21, 2018, The America Team and the US Committee for Refugees and Immigrants (USCRI) sent a letter — in which 54 other organizations joined as additional signatories — to the Secretary General of the United Nations, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, the United States Ambassador to the United Nations, the United States Secretary of State, and the Director General of the International Organization for Migration, urging that the UN and its agencies seek to rescue, protect and evacuate thousands of Eritrean and other sub-Saharan African refugees, trafficking victims and migrants who had come to be caught in a vicious crossfire among warring Libyan militias, and whose lives had come to be imperiled.  The letter can be viewed here. The thoughtful and informative reply of 15 November, 2018 from IOM and UNHCR can be viewed here.

    10. The America Team participated in a conference of international advocates, scholars and writers in London April 24-25, 2019, exploring needs and options for establishing and sustaining inclusive democratic governance in Eritrea. John presented on the topic of the work of The America Team. See this summary.

    11. On August 1, 2019, some 43 members of the U.S. Congress sent a letter to the Secretary of Homeland Security strenuously objecting to the administration’s plan, announced in September 2017, to aggressively seek to remove some hundreds of Eritreans from the U.S. to Eritrea, where they would likely be imprisoned, tortured or killed.  The letter also asked for data as to how many Eritreans had been removed under the plan, together with related data inquiries about Eritrean asylum seekers. The congressional letter can be seen here.  The America Team had taken the lead nationally in seeking to stop the removals and to obtain the data – having, among many other actions, sent our own letter to the then Secretary in December 2017 (see item 8 above); and we were deeply gratified by the dispatch of the congressional letter. To our knowledge, this was the first instance of congressional action specifically on behalf of Eritrean refugees or asylum seekers.

    12. The Guardian, on July 2, 2020, reported on assistance being provided by The America Team to Eritrean footballers who had defected to Uganda and who were imperiled there.

13. On July 3, 2020, members of The America Team participated in a panel discussion during a Zoom conference among international advocates, scholars and writers, as a follow-on to the April 2019 conference described above. As before, the theme of the conference was exploring mechanisms for establishing and sustaining inclusive democratic governance in Eritrea.

14. On December 20, 2020, The Dallas Morning News published an opinion piece on the implications and impact of the Ethiopia-Tigrayan civil war.  John is quoted as to grave concern about harm to Eritrean refugees encamped in the midst of the war — See: the article here.

15. In February 2021, John was granted the prestigious by Yiakl, an international Eritrean diaspora organization, for his commitment to helping Eritrean refugees and asylum seekers. The award citation appears here.

16. In July 2021, an America Team paper about the atrocities experienced by Eritrean refugees during the war in Tigray, Ethiopia appeared as Chapter 8 in a book about the war published by Eritrea Focus.

17. In February 2022, an America Team update on its 2021 paper about Eritrean refugees in the Tigray war was published in Eritrea Hub.

18. In February 2024, John was quoted in a news write-up on opposition to a PFDJ festival held in Charlotte, North Carolina: WCNC Charlotte.