Fleeing Eritreans using border as a “hovering zone”

A UNHCR spokesperson in Asmara told IRIN that 1,250 new refugees from western Eritrea had arrived in the last 24 hours in eastern Sudan, in Guisa and Lafa camps. Humanitarian sources told IRIN that about 600 Eritrean soldiers who arrived in eastern Sudan this week had been cut off by Ethiopian paratroopers in helicopters and were forced to cross the border. They were disarmed by the Sudanese regional authorities. UNHCR said it would continue to move Eritrean refugees from “the highly volatile Gergef area near the border to Shagarab, 70 km deeper into Sudan”. Over the last week, UNHCR has moved 4,794 refugees out of an original group of 11,000. A registration process that started mid-May recorded more than 75,000 Eritrean arrivals, but UNHCR warned the figure should be treated with caution as “there have been movements of refugees back and forth across the border”. Many of the refugees were displaced for some time in western Eritrea, and even now are reluctant to remain in the refugee camps. UNHCR Eritrea’s Emergency Team has deployed to the border town of Ghirmayka, hoping to assist and monitor the hundreds of thousands of internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Gash-Barka zone, western Eritrea. Describing the border region as a “hovering zone”, UNHCR said many of the IDPs had congregated along dry river beds and caves and may be forced to flee into Sudan if fighting continues, or if they lack aid supplies and adequate shelter. Continued fighting in western Eritrea increases the scale of the humanitarian crisis in Eritrea, with hundreds of thousands displaced, and a continuing stream of refugees into Sudan. The affected areas in western Eritrea are the main agricultural areas. Humanitarian sources in Kassala told IRIN it was “very sad” to see repeatedly displaced people becoming refugees. Before the resurgence of conflict, UNHCR was poised to repatriate more than 100,000 long-term Eritrean refugees - mostly to western Eritrea - who had fled to Sudan during the 30-year for independence. Meanwhile, the whereabouts of Somali refugees in Harsila camp, near Assab, continues to be a concern for UNHCR, said a spokesmen Peter Kessler in Asmara. The camp held some 2,500 refugees from southern Somalia before fighting intensified around the Red Sea port. Since the end of May Djibouti has recieved 1,050, and Yemen took in about 600 who arrived in small boats. Kessler said others may have remained at the camp site - which is located outside the port town but near the new front line - or dispersed.