Swiss Review 6/2018

Swiss Review / November 2018 / No.6 16 Society sault,” says the court. More generally, indefinite recruit- ment would not with sufficient certainty constitute forced labour, which international law condemns. Radical change of course In 2006, Switzerland decided to accommodate all desert- ers fleeing forced enlistment under the Eritrean flag, rais- ing the rate of recognition of Eritrean asylum seekers from 6% to 82%. This period is over. “Eritreans are the largest group of asylum seekers in Switzerland, so there is im- mense political pressure to reduce their numbers,” says Peter Meier, spokesman for the Swiss Refugee Organisa- tion. The Federal Department of Justice and Police is in- creasingly giving in to this pressure.” “This policy is not linked to the fact that the refugees come from this particular country, or to the problems that this group poses, which are minimal, but to the number of people it constitutes,” says Tzeggai Tesfaldet. The social worker believes that “this deterrence is bearing fruit, since the arrivals are decreasing, although of course the closing of the Mediterranean route also plays an important role”. In addition, new asylum applications are now examined in the light of the new policy, reducing the chances of ob- taining protection. Defending the image of refugees Two arguments, relayed by the media, may have weighed on the image of Eritreans in Switzerland. The first relates to the difficulty this group has in integrating. “Many Eri- treans have only poor education…Most do not understand our writing and need literacy training,” says the SEM. An SEM study indicates that since 2002 all students have had to complete their secondary education at amilitary school, and only a limited number are allowed to study at one of the country’s higher education institutions. The others are forced to performmilitary service. Another complaint is the fact that some refugees have returned to their country for holidays. “In 2017, the SEM withdrew refugee status from four Eritrean nationals who had made a visit to Eritrea. In the first half of 2018, the same applied to nine people,” says Emmanuelle Jaquet von Sury. According to a report from the European Asylum Sup- port Office, dated May 2105, exiled Eritreans apparently had the opportunity to enter the country to visit their families. To do this, or to obtain any official document, they must have paid a 2% tax on income required by Eri- trea from all members of the diaspora. “I do not pay this tax, which is used without any transparency and limits the rights of refugees,” says Tzeggai Tesfaldet. Parliamentarians say good things The perception of the authoritarian regime inAsmaramay have been influenced by the visit in February 2016 of four parliamentarians. Interviewed on the spot by Radio Télé- vision Suisse RTS, the CVP National Councillor Claude Béglé, for his part, claimed that “Eritrea is opening up”. For Aldo Brina, this media operation has helped to change the perception of the public, yet the situation on the ground has not changed. Are repatriated deserters at risk of abuse? “Since human rights observers cannot travel to Eritrea, and the Interna- tional Committee of the Red Cross is not allowed to visit prisons, it is impossible to verify this,” says the European Asylum Support Office. As for the Swiss Agency for Devel- opment and Cooperation, it was “obliged in 2006 to put an end to its commitment of several years in Eritrea in viewof the difficulties encountered by local mutual assistance or- ganisations”, according to the SEM. A country being hollowed out Every month, 5,000 people on average flee Eritrea, a country led by Isaias Afeworki and a single party. No elections have taken place and the constitution has never entered into force. The Eritrean community in Switzerland is estimated at 35,000 people. In 2015, about 25% of European asylum applications were filed in Switzerland. The Eritrean diaspora totals almost half a million people, for a country of 5million inhabitants.