Attachments
Summary and key findings
This summary refers to key trends described across two reports on the situation of Eritreans on the move. This report – ‘Where to next?’ – details the country-level changes in policy that have affected Eritrean mobility dynamics over the past decade, while the second report – ‘Shifting protection experiences of displaced Eritreans’ - analyses the key trends in how Eritreans have experienced and responded to these changes and provides recommendations based on f indings from across the two. Together these reports examine how political, security, and policy changes across Africa, the Middle East, and Europe have systematically reduced Eritreans’ access to safe refuge, despite their continued displacement in significant numbers, while also undermining existing support systems.
They respond to the notion that though Eritreans were among the largest groups reaching Europe via the Central Mediterranean route in the mid-2010s, by 2024, Eritrean arrivals had dropped by almost 90%.
This was the case even though departures from Eritrea had not massively decreased.1 Through interviews with displaced Eritreans and key informants (KIs), this research seeks to understand how the dynamics of Eritrean mobility have adjusted to externalisation policies, shrinking spaces of refuge, and compounding regional crises. It analyses the shifting conditions surrounding protection and access to livelihoods of Eritreans in different countries, the heightened risks of (im)mobility that result from this and suggests ways in which this population might be better supported. The key findings include:
• Shrinking spaces of refuge for displaced Eritreans have heightened this population’s vulnerability, for example, by impeding their access to identity and travel documentation and to registration procedures and through destroying their livelihoods and local support networks.
• Shifting alliances in the region have affected Eritrean refugees, particularly by disrupting their abilities to access asylum and safety in neighbouring countries and by heightening the risk of deportations back to Eritrea.
• Protection needs in refugee camps are extremely high throughout the Horn of Africa. Camps are increasingly sites of violence where international and national assistance are insufficient. Camps across Ethiopia and Sudan are characterised by limited access to health care, education, food, water and sanitation, and legal assistance. The situation is likely to worsen given the cuts to the aid sector.
• Cities are increasingly the only sites where Eritreans may be able to access basic levels of safety, services, and legal support, despite the risks of increasing deportations and arbitrary detentions. Project respondents attest to the growing importance of key cities across Africa (primarily Cairo, Kampala, and Addis Ababa and less so Juba, Port Sudan, and Nairobi) in the journeys of displaced Eritreans, as reflected in the growing numbers moving to these metropolitan areas.
• Outbreaks or escalations of violence across the Horn of Africa and North Africa, combined with stricter border policies, have disrupted established migration routes and smuggling networks,2 leading to more predatory business models and undermining ‘service delivery’ in some areas.