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Reading Matthew Vella’s report-cum-comments on Magistrate Abigail Lofaro’s inquiry report on the 2002 Eritrean issue, one might get the impression that in this deliberations the Office of the Refugee Commissioner considered only printouts from the BBC news website and updates on the UNHCR website.
This of course, is not the case.
One may wish to note that the list of documents the undersigned made available to the Board of Inquiry include, among others, a February 2002 UNHCR memorandum; UNHCR guidelines relating to the eligibility of asylum seekers from Eritrea (November 2002); two lengthy assessment reports on Eritrea compiled by the Country Policy and Information Unit of the UK.
One may wish to also note that one of the documents the undersigned presented to the Board of inquiry was a May 2002 news report inter alia stating that, during a meeting near Kassala and several other briefings that followed in Sudan. “Eritreans were assured UNHCR teams in their homeland had found no signs of returnees being harassed.”
Moreover, the undersigned presented to the Board of Inquiry an August 2002 news report saying that, speaking about Eritreans who may not have wanted to return to Eritrea, UNHCR spokesman Kris Janovski stated as follow: “Once there are no reasons why these people should stay in the Sudan, and once they are not in, what we call in our language, ‘no longer in need of international protection,’ then they can go back…. And if they do not want to go back and they are sent back by force, this is a less preferred solution. But, eventually, there is not much that UNHCR can do against it.”
Charles Buttigieg
Refugee Commissioner
Valletta
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