US embassy cable - 05CAIRO4221

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 
------- 
 
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 
 
--------------------- 
Visit to Saudi Arabia 
--------------------- 
 
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. 
 
------------ 
The Caseload 
------------ 
 
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. 
---------- 
Conditions 
---------- 
 
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. 
 
-------------- 
Refugee Status 
-------------- 
 
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. 
 
--------- 
The Claim 
--------- 
 
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. 
 
----------------------------------- 
SAG Attitude - Possible Pull-Factor 
----------------------------------- 
 
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 
 
------------ 
The Referral 
------------ 
 
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). 
 
---------------- 
Group Definition 
---------------- 
 
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. 
 
--------------- 
Processing Site 
--------------- 
 
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. 
 
----------------------------- 
Recommendation/Action Request 
----------------------------- 
 
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