ERITREAN MILITARY GROUP IN KSA PROPOSED FOR

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 05 CAIRO 004221

SIPDIS

SENSITIVE

FROM REGIONAL REFUGEE COORDINATOR
FOR PRM/A, PRM/ANE, PRM/MCE, AND NEA/ENA
DHS FOR BCIS ROSS ANDERSON
ROME FOR DHS ANNE ARRIES CORSANO
GENEVA FOR RMA
ATHENS FOR DHS

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PREF PREL PHUM SA EG UNHCR
SUBJECT: ERITREAN MILITARY GROUP IN KSA PROPOSED FOR
RESETTLEMENT.

Sensitive but unclassified. Please protect accordingly.

References: (A) Riyadh 3189; (B) Jeddah 1644

1.(U) Embassy Riyadh and Congen Jeddah have cleared this
message.

2.(U) This is an action request. See para 21.

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Summary
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3. (SBU) Cairo-based Regional Refugee Coordinator Cheyne
visited Riyadh and Jizan with International Organization for
Migration (IOM) Operations Manager, Jeanette Camarillo from
May 28-31. The visit was in response to a request from the
UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Geneva, through
its regional office in Riyadh (Reftel A),for the USG to
consider resettlement in the U.S. for a group of 215
Eritrean asylum seekers in Jizan. We have concluded that
the Eritreans - all ex-military - appear to be an easily
definable, finite group with reasonably sound refugee claims
and would be good candidates for a group referral to the
USRP in accordance with the profiling methodology recently
developed by UNHCR Geneva. We recommend that UNHCR be
encouraged to submit the Eritrean profile through Geneva to
PRM accordingly. End Summary

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Visit to Saudi Arabia
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4. (SBU) As reported in Reftel A, UNHCR approached Embassy
Riyadh on May 14 to convey a request from UNHCR headquarters
for the USG to consider resettlement for a group of Eritrean
military personnel who had sought refuge in the southern Red
Sea town of Jizan. Cairo-based Regional Refugee Coordinator
Cheyne subsequently visited Riyadh and Jizan to meet with
UNHCR, with Saudi Arabian Government (SAG) officials and
with the Eritreans themselves to assess their suitability
for the U.S. Refugee Resettlement Program (USRP). Cheyne
was accompanied by Jeanette Camarillo of IOM, one of our
refugee "Overseas Processing Entities" (OPEs) for the
region. In Riyadh we met with UNHCR Regional
Representative, Ahmed Gubartalla and his deputy, Karim
Atassi. In Jizan we visited the refugees with UNHCR RSD
Consultant Lianne Engelkes, and met with General Saleh bin
Ibrahim al-Sanatly, head of the local Coast Guard
contingent, which is taking care of the Eritreans.

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The Caseload
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5. (SBU) The Eritrean Military Group (EMG) comprises 212
cases (215 individuals). Most of them are ex-navy with
three air force and several army personnel. With the
exception of three, who arrived in late 2002, the Eritreans
arrived in the Jizan area in small groups between June 2004
and May this year. There are three women in the group (also
military) and two children. More than 70 percent are young
single males aged 17-35. Approximately two-thirds are
married with families in Eritrea. The majority are Orthodox
Christian. Apart from the air force personnel, who arrived
by helicopter, the Eritreans crossed the Red Sea in small
groups by boat, some of them naval vessels.


6. (SBU) Most of the Eritreans are Tigrinyans with a few
Saho, Afar, and Tigrenians. They are from both rural and
urban areas. Most have had primary and some have had
secondary school education. A few are college graduates and
some are officers. But most claim to be lower ranks. The
embarkation point for the trip to Saudi Arabia was normally
through the port of Massawa.
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Conditions
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7. (SBU) The Eritreans were apprehended by the Coast Guard
upon arrival in Saudi Arabia and initially placed in various
military and penal institutions in the area. Most of them
have now been moved to a collection center recently built by
the Coast Guard specifically for this purpose. The pilots
are being held by the Ministry of Defense on a nearby island
and the women are in prison quarters pending completion of
suitable housing for them at the collection center.


8. (SBU) The collection center is a converted wedding
pavilion on the outskirts of Jizan. The Coast Guard
provides adequate food, water, sanitary facilities, and
shelter. Coast Guard medical personnel visit the center
regularly to provide healthcare. Although boredom,
frustration and anxiety were common complaints, the Coast
Guard seems to be taking good care of the refugees to the
extent of building a Mosque for the few Muslims in the group
(although there was no mention of a similar initiative to
provide for the needs of the Christians). A common complaint
from the refugees was the lack of contact with their
families in Eritrea. The Coast Guard has banned telephone
contact although the refugees are permitted to write
letters.

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Refugee Status
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9. (SBU) Saudi Arabia is not a signatory to the 1951 UN
Refugee Convention and has no legal or institutional
framework for dealing with asylum seekers. Responsibility
for asylum seekers seems to be shared on an ad hoc basis by
the Ministry of Defense (e.g., for the Iraqis in Rafha camp)
and the Ministry of Interior (the Coast Guard is an agency
of the Ministry of Interior). With the exception of the
Eritrean ex-military personnel in Jizan and the Iraqis in
Rafha, the KSA generally does not acknowledge the existence
of refugees in the kingdom. Under normal circumstances
Eritrean asylum seekers would be deported, if apprehended,
but the SAG was reluctant to deport the group that arrived
in Jizan because of their military status. Local
integration is not considered an option for asylum seekers.
The SAG thus approached UNHCR, not to help care for the
Eritreans, but to help resettle them in a third country.


10. (SBU) To date UNHCR has completed Refugee Status
Determinations (RSDs) and full Resettlement Registration
Forms (RRFs) for 50 cases (52 individuals). Engelkes has
just completed RSD interviews for the remaining 162
cases/163 individuals. None of the Eritreans currently in
Jizan want to return to Eritrea.

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The Claim
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11. (SBU) The Eritreans have similar, if not identical
claims for refugee status centered on the Eritrean system of
indefinite, universal, compulsory military conscription.
Most have been in the military for 5-7 years without any
apparent hope for demobilization. They claim to have been
forcibly drafted in street round-ups or taken from their
houses, roadblocks or work places. Although some have seen
combat most say that during their service they were usually
deployed as laborers in construction, road works and other
non-combatant duty. About 80 percent had been detained at
some time and claimed to have experienced beatings, torture
and forced labor for resisting their prolonged conscription.
According to UNHCR they had articulated their disagreement
with the current regime, the lack of demobilization
prospects, the severe treatment in the army and lack of
education, family life and future prospects.


12. (SBU) UNHCR recognizes that desertion by itself is not
always an acceptable claim for refugee status and
resettlement in the U.S. However it points to the insidious
practice of indefinite compulsory conscription in Eritrea as
a factor that distinguishes the Eritrean cases from those
based simply on desertion. Given the group's opposition to
this practice, UNHCR says the Eritrean claims are thus based
on imputed political opinion, membership of a particular
social group (in some cases religious persecution as well),
and an assumption of persecution should they be repatriated
to Eritrea. UNHCR says none of the refugees appears to be
excludable.


13. (SBU) The presumption of mistreatment should they return
to Eritrea is probably well founded. The Jizan group is
well aware of the fate of other Eritrean asylum seekers who
have been repatriated against their will in recent years.
Some claim to have been serving on the island of Dahlak
where a group of around 200 Eritreans were forcibly
repatriated after seeking asylum in Malta last year (cited
in the U.S. Human Rights Report for Eritrea). UNHCR says it
is well documented that the Eritreans who were returned to
Dahlak have been very badly treated and are "dying slowly"
- with evidence of some extra-judicial killings. Similarly
a group of Eritrean asylum seekers forcibly deported from
Libya last year hijacked their plane to Khartoum rather than
return to Asmara.

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SAG Attitude - Possible Pull-Factor
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14. (SBU) The Jizan Coast Guard believes the movement of
small groups of Eritrean military personnel across the Red
Sea to Saudi Arabia has stopped which could suggest that the
Eritrean government has taken steps to stem the flow.
Comment: The Saudi Government is of course concerned that
more Eritreans will be tempted to seek refuge in the kingdom
but it has apparently concluded that the risk of creating a
pull-factor will increase the longer the refugees stay in
Saudi Arabia and that the best way to avoid this is to move
the Eritreans out of the country as soon as possible. The
SAG is also concerned that the continuing existence of the
ex-military personnel in Jizan will be an irritant in its
relations with Eritrea. This explains the SAG support for
third country resettlement for the Eritreans. End Comment

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The Referral
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15. (SBU) UNHCR Riyadh has been instructed by Geneva to
approach only the U.S. in seeking resettlement for the
Eritreans. Following the advice of its headquarters, Riyadh
is preparing to present the Eritreans as a group in
accordance with the group profile methodology devised by
Phyllis Coven and her team in Geneva last year (although
UNHCR has prepared full individual RRFs for 50 cases to
date).

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Group Definition
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16. (SBU) If the USRP were to consider the Eritreans as a
group referral then the issue of group definition assumes
some importance. The Eritrean group could be restricted to:

-- those who have been interviewed and accepted by UNHCR as
refugees under the UNHCR mandate (with contemporaneous
records available at UNHCR's office);

-- those who appear on the official Coast Guard list of
asylum seekers who have arrived and who have been registered
by the SAG within specified cut-off dates - (we have this
list - it provides names, arrival dates, and modes of
transportation);
-- those who have documentary proof of military service
(alternately, those who have no documentation at all - about
two percent - will be admitted to the group if their
candidature is supported by an authoritative narrative that
supports the claim that all persons of a certain age in
Eritrea are subject to military conscription which is
compulsory and indefinite);

-- those who have not returned to Eritrea;

-- those who hold no legal residence status in Saudi
Arabia;


17. (SBU) The list could be definitive and, once accepted,
would not allow for the addition of family members who could
be dealt with as follow-to-join visa 93 cases at a later
date. This would act as a disincentive for the Eritreans to
bring their family members to Saudi Arabia. UNHCR could be
given the option of referring any latecomers or anyone not
meeting these criteria to the USRP as individual (P1) cases.

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Processing Site
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18. (SBU) There are several hotels in Jizan that could be
suitable for refugee processing (including DHS
adjudication). But the SAG seems ready to provide whatever
assistance is needed to move these Eritreans out of Saudi
Arabia and UNHCR is convinced that, if asked, General
Sanatly would be prepared to turn over part of his Coast
Guard HQ compound to the USRP for processing. The well-
secured, spacious compound is just across the street from a
hotel that could provide accommodation for adjudicators.


19. (SBU) If we do agree to consider this caseload the next
step could be to request our OPE (IOM) and Consulate
Jeddah's RSO to visit Jizan to review processing procedures
and to survey possible processing sites.

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Recommendation/Action Request
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20. (SBU) We have made no commitment to UNHCR, to the SAG or
to the Eritreans concerning the Jizan group. We advised
UNHCR that our preliminary conclusions were favorable and
that we would forward a request for consideration to PRM.
We also advised UNHCR that if we did eventually accept the
Eritreans for consideration some would probably be excluded
from the final group submission and others could be denied
during adjudication.


21. (SBU) The Eritreans appear to be an easily definable,
finite group with reasonably sound refugee claims and would
be good candidates for a group referral to the USRP in
accordance with the profiling methodology recently developed
by UNHCR Geneva. We recommend that UNHCR be encouraged to
submit the Eritrean profile through Geneva to PRM
accordingly. If PRM concurs we would proceed as we did with
the Ethiopian Navy Group in Yemen, by involving CIS, the OPE
and UNHCR early in the process to apportion responsibilities
and to determine the most efficient and credible way to move
the group through the USRP. We would appreciate Department
guidance.

Gray

#4221