US embassy cable - 03DJIBOUTI1510

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 04 DJIBOUTI 001510 
 
SIPDIS 
 
ADDIS FOR REFCOORD, NAIROBI FOR SOMALI WATCHER, DEPT. FOR 
AF/E, PRM, DRL 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 08/12/2013 
TAGS: PREF, PREL, PHUM, EAID, DJ 
SUBJECT: DJIBOUTI: EXPULSION OF ALIENS DRAWS WIDESPREAD 
PUBLIC ATTENTION 
 
REF: DJIBOUTI 1453 
 
Classified By: CONS/PD C.BEAMER FOR REASONS 1.5 (B) and (D) 
 
SUMMARY 
-------- 
 
1. (C) Hundreds of illegal aliens took to the streets on 
August 16 to protest the Djiboutian Government's declaration 
that all illegals must depart the country by August 31.  As 
the deadline approaches, Djiboutian security forces are 
conducting regular sweeps of the city.  Over 300 persons per 
day reportedly are leaving voluntarily.  Many other suspected 
illegals are being detained in often overcrowded and 
unsanitary detention facilities as they await deportation. 
Human rights activists report deaths related to mistreatment 
of deportees.  The Government of Djibouti initially pressured 
the World Food Program to divert food stocks designated for 
Food for Work and school feeding programs to detention 
facilities but has now withdrawn its request. 
 
2. (C) Although the new policy has drawn widespread public 
support, the sweeps have also created a climate of 
uncertainty among local residents, many of whom now carry 
identity cards for fear of being detained.  Although the 
expulsions are ostensibly an attempt to improve poor economic 
conditions by creating more jobs for Djiboutians, they are 
widely perceived to be the result of American pressure on the 
government to tighten security.  The Djiboutian government 
has done nothing to dispel this impression.  We will need to 
stress to our interlocutors that a pattern of human rights 
violations could negatively impact our bilateral 
relationship.  We may also wish to mount a renewed public 
relations campaign, in conjunction with the U.S. military 
camp, to emphasize U.S. humanitarian activities.  End Summary. 
 
INTRO/DEMONSTRATIONS 
-------------------- 
 
3. (C) The Ministry of Interior's July 26 declaration that 
all illegal aliens must leave the country by August 31 has 
drawn increasing public attention in Djibouti city. 
Illegals, mostly from Ethiopia and Somalia, comprise a 
significant portion of the population.  Many work in blue 
collar positions which some Djiboutians have declined to 
accept. 
 
4. (C) Several hundred aliens participated in two separate 
August 16 demonstrations against the expulsions.  In one 
demonstration, several hundred Somaliphone ethnic Issa 
Ethiopians protested at the National Office for Assistance of 
Refugees and Displaced persons.  These demonstrators perceive 
President Ismail Guelleh as a clan father figure who 
encouraged them to relocate to Djibouti during the civil war 
in the early 1990's to support his efforts against the 
northern Afar districts of Djibouti.  They now feel betrayed 
by the new policies which will repatriate them to an 
unfamiliar Ethiopia.  Riot police closely observed this group 
of demonstrators but did not apprehend or detain anyone. 
 
5. (C) A second group of non-Issa Ethiopians appealed to the 
National Population Center for an extension of the August 31 
deadline.  This group complained that they had been unable to 
settle their business interests here in Djibouti, were still 
owed salary arrears, and needed a few extra weeks to prepare 
themselves for departure.  Police in riot gear filled two 
military trucks with approximately fifty individuals from 
this second group and reportedly dropped them at the 
Ethiopian frontier in the late evening of August 16. 
 
SWEEPS AND DEATHS 
----------------- 
 
6. (C) The National Police and Gendarmerie of Djibouti have 
begun rounding up, detaining, and deporting suspected 
illegals.  They are held at the Nagad detention center near 
Camp Lemonier and then either trucked to the border or loaded 
onto the Djibouti-Addis Ababa train.  According to a Somali 
domestic of an Embassy FSN, he was held for six days in Nagad 
in a room packed so tightly with people he could hardly move. 
 He reported receiving three meals in the six day period 
before a police captain became so disgusted with the stench 
emanating from the chamber that he ordered his subordinates 
to evacuate some of the occupants before they died.  The 
domestic reported that the group was divided into Somali and 
non-Somali Ethiopian ethnicities.  The Somalis were told to 
leave and not come back while the Ethiopians were returned to 
the detention cell.  The domestic returned to the Embassy 
FSN's home to gather some clothes and money before departing 
for Somaliland. 
7. (C) Jean Paul Noel, President of the Djiboutian League of 
Human Rights, told Emboff on August 12 that some illegals had 
already died in the deportation process.  Noel stated that 
two persons recently perished after Ethiopian security forces 
refused to accept them at the frontier because they were 
originally from Somalia.  The Djiboutian security forces at 
the scene reportedly refused to take them back to Djibouti 
City.  They were left to walk in an unfamiliar area without 
food or water and perished.  Noel reported that four persons 
died in similar fashion on the Somaliland frontier.  He added 
that two Ethiopian prostitutes died in detention on the 
Ethiopian frontier after a sweep brought a truck full of 
women from Djibouti city to the border without documentation. 
Rumors of rape and mistreatment of suspected illegals abound, 
but post is unable to verify these allegations. 
 
APPEAL TO WFP 
------------- 
 
8. (C) World Food Program (WFP) logistics chief and acting 
director Robert Gillenwater reported that he was under heavy 
pressure from the Minister of the Interior to divert U.S. 
food stocks from Food for Work and School feeding programs to 
detention centers.  The Minister has since withdrawn this 
request due to the anticipated negative public perception 
that Djiboutians would be losing food aid to foreigners. 
 
9. (C) The Minister has persuaded UNHCR to construct a 
"transition center" in the southern district of Ali Sabieh to 
hold three to four thousand individuals claiming asylum or 
urban refugee status.  Rafik Said, UNHCR's principal 
administrator for the Africa office on temporary duty in 
Djibouti, told Emboff that the center's purpose was to vet 
the over 12,000 people granted "urban refugee" status by the 
Djiboutian National Office for Assistance for Refugees and 
Displaced Persons over the last three years.  When queried as 
to where the resources for this action would be found Mr. 
Said responded that there was already a small budget for the 
urban refugee population and that UNHCR had certain "surplus" 
resources both in WFP warehouses and in non-foodstuff goods. 
 
SCRAMBLE FOR DOCUMENTATION 
-------------------------- 
 
10. (C) Djiboutian law states that citizenship is based on 
proof of the Djiboutian nationality of both parents.  In 
practice, however, Djiboutian nationality appears to be 
available to those willing to pay an adequate price. 
Observers suggest it is more readily available to Somali Issa 
applicants than to others.  Many residents of Djibouti have 
previously had little use for identity documents.  Students, 
for example, who have recently completed their high school 
studies and wish to study abroad have typically only then 
commenced the registration process directly with local 
authorities.  One of Post's Yemeni FSNs was born in Djibouti 
to parents who have lived in Djibouti since the 1940's but 
only last week sought to obtain his identity card.  He 
reported that he was refused several times before being 
granted audience with the director of the National Population 
Center, at which time he was able to obtain an identity card 
for 100,000 DF (about $500). 
 
11. (C) In recent weeks, crowds at the Population Center have 
become increasingly unruly, but it is difficult if not 
impossible to gain admittance.  Mahdi God, editor of the 
weekly "La Realite", told Conoff that appointments at the 
Population Center were only available to applicants who were 
Somali Issa or closely tied to a political heavyweight.  This 
practice, if true, will strengthen the already strong Issa 
electoral majority, as identity cards afford the right to 
vote. 
 
TIED TO U.S. SECURITY CONCERNS? 
------------------------------- 
 
12. (C) Djibouti city becomes quieter and emptier as the 
illegal population dwindles.  Many Djiboutians now 
increasingly make sure that they do not leave home without a 
copy of their identity card for fear of being detained. 
Djiboutians on vacation in Ethiopia claim to have been 
attacked and some have returned home to Djibouti rather than 
risk harm. 
 
13. (C) The publicized rationale for the dragnet against 
foreigners, and the main basis of its popularity, is that it 
is necessary to address the unemployment rate among 
Djiboutians, thought to be as high as sixty percent.  The 
targets of the new policy are almost entirely Somalis 
(largely from Somaliland) and Ethiopians (both of Somali and 
non-Somali ethnicity).   Djibouti's population includes 
significant numbers of Somalis or Afars from Somaliland and 
Ethiopia, but of an earlier generation.  While there are no 
reliable statistics on the number of illegals in Djibouti, 
they are sure to number tens of thousands in a country whose 
population is far less than one million. 
 
14. (C) However, Djiboutian sources tell us that police on 
the streets are explaining that their actions stem from U.S. 
pressure to improve security and control Djibouti's borders. 
Djiboutian leaders have done nothing to reverse this 
widely-held view. 
 
A POPULAR MOVE, BUT WITH WHAT CONSEQUENCES? 
------------------------------------------- 
 
15. (C) Opinion is split as to whether Djiboutians will be 
willing to undertake many of the jobs now filled by illegals. 
 Daher Ahmed Farah, a prominent oppositionist whom we might 
have expected to support the cause of the illegals, told us 
August 12 that he felt the economic conditions in Djibouti 
had reached such lows that Djiboutians were ready to step in 
and accept any wage-paying position.  He strongly supported 
the expulsions, also on security grounds. 
 
16. (C) The illegals make up an overwhelming percentage of 
the domestic worker population in Djibouti and many 
Djiboutians, including Embassy employees, will be impacted by 
the loss of their household staff.  A female FSN noted that 
the Djiboutian men all support the action because none of 
them will have to cook or watch the kids after the domestics 
depart.  "Djiboutians might work for you expats," she said, 
"but not in the home of another Djiboutian."  Heretofore, the 
social connotation of being a wage laborer cleaning or 
swinging a shovel has discouraged many Djiboutians from 
accepting these jobs even when offered.  Jean Paul Noel 
lamented that he would have much preferred to hire a fellow 
Darod clansmen as his household guardian but that he had been 
forced to hire an Oromo because none of his clansmen would 
take the job. 
 
17. (C) A female Djiboutian judge told Charge privately that 
she believed the Minister of Interior's policy was correct. 
She insisted, however, that the new regulations were not 
directed at household staff, particularly those who, though 
themselves illegally resident in Djibouti, are working for 
relatives who are Djiboutian or permanently resident here. 
Nonetheless, when Charge asked whether a legal mechanism 
existed for concerned employers to obtain residence or work 
permits for their staff, she could not provide a definitive 
response. 
 
COMMENT: ARE THE EXPULSIONS REAL? 
--------------------------------- 
 
18. (C) Expulsions of foreigners are nothing new in 
Djibouti--sweeps are a regular feaure of the landscape.  This 
newest effort has the ring of greater seriousness, but its 
long-term viablity is still open to question, as no efforts 
are being made to record or register the deported aliens. 
 
19. (C) The current popularity of the policy is likely to be 
short-lived if significant social services are disrupted 
following the mass exodus of affected laborers.  Djiboutians 
already frequently deplore the perceived detioration of 
sanitation and public works under the current administration. 
 
20. (C) The return of many deportees may be inevitable, in 
the absence of a much more systematic approach.  The USG is 
assisting the Djiboutian Government in its efforts to control 
its borders and identify floating populations.  USG programs 
currently on-deck will target these areas and should help in 
the registration and identification of persons entering and 
leaving the country. 
 
21. (C) We are disturbed by the recent allegations of abuses 
of the deportees, all the more so because the most recent 
expulsions are widely believed to be the result of U.S. 
pressure to beef up security.  In our discussions with our 
Djiboutian interlocutors, we must take every opportunity to 
stress that such actions will not be tolerated, and that a 
pattern of human rights violations could adversely affect the 
bilateral relationship, including the provision of 
assistance.  We are also working with the U.S. military at 
Camp Lemonier to explore the possibility of a renewed public 
relations campaign to highlight U.S. civil affairs projects. 
End comment. 
BREITER