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AfricaFocus Bulletin
Country-focused Bulletins
Nov 15, 2009 Eritrea: No Welcome in Italy
"We were fortunate to spend two days in a small coastal town of
Agrigento where in the central part of the city stands a Catholic
church with the figure of a black priest carved in stone perched
high above in the church tower. It is a statue of Saint Calogero,
an African priest who came to Sicily around the 14th century and is
revered as the town's patron saint. But in the 21st century,
African refugees who traverse the treacherous waters of the
Mediterranean Sea find Calogero's city, indeed the entire country,
unwelcoming, even hostile to them. A well-known Italian Bishop is
said to have remarked that if the saint-priest were to arrive in
Agrigento today, he would find himself in similar circumstances as
the refugees who are detained and disdained." - Nunu Kidane and
Gerald Lenoir
Nov 15, 2009 Eritrea: Press Freedom Updates
Eritrea ranks at the very bottom of Reporters without Borders index
of press freedom for 2009, released in October (see http://www.rsf.org/en-classement1003-2009.html), accompanied in the bottom five by North Korea, Turkmenistan, Iran, and Burma.
In this report, Reporters without Borders lists 28 journalists as imprisoned in the
country, more than any other country.
Nov 15, 2009 Eritrea: Perilous Journeys
"On 20 August 2009, off the Italian island of Lampedusa, the
Italian coastguard rescued five of the remaining 78 Eritrean
passengers aboard a rickety boat set sail from the Libyan capital,
Tripoli. While a number of European sailing vessels had passed
their boat in the three weeks it had spent at sea, only one stopped
to give them life jackets, bread and water. But it soon went on its
way ... Seventy-three of the Eritrean refugees died from thirst,
hunger and heat. ... The five survivors now face a fine of 5,000 to
10,000 Euros for illegal immigration under an Italian law that took
effect in early August." - Yohannes Woldemariam
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