Women deported from Assab

A group of Ethiopian women from the Eritrean Red Sea port of Assab were deported at the weekend, arriving on the north coast of Djibouti, reported AFP. The 92 women, mostly domestic workers, were brought by boat to a place close to Ras-Syan, 160 kms north of Djibouti city, said Obock District Commissioner Mohamed Kayad Rayaleh.

The women said they had been detained in “inhumane conditions” for 17 days before being expelled, the official told AFP. He added they had arrived wearing very little clothing. On arrival, they had walked to the nearby settlement of Moulouhle, where residents gave them clothing.

An estimated 70 percent of the Assab port population was Ethiopian at the time Eritrea formalised independence in 1993, but there has been a steady exodus back to Ethiopia. By the time the conflict started in 1998 Assab port was idle, but a relatively high percentage of petty traders and hotel workers remaining in Assab were Ethiopian. Although the Eritrean government said Ethiopians had the right to remain, some Ethiopians remaining at the port town complained to journalists and the ICRC of harassment by the military.