Eritrean asylum seekers in Israel are protesting their country’s ambassador, saying he sent people to beat them for speaking out against the African dictatorship.
About 200 demonstrators gather outside Israel’s Foreign Ministry on Monday, saying the ambassador doesn’t represent them.
Blutus Iyasu, an organizer with the group United Eritreans for Justice, says the ambassador’s people have attacked and threatened them in south Tel Aviv, creating a climate of fear and division in the community. Iyasu says they’re “trying to crush the spirit of standing up against the government.”
Eritreans make up the majority of the 35,000 African asylum seekers in Israel. They say they fled danger and persecution from a country with forced lifetime conscription and one of the world’s worst human rights records.
The Eritrean Embassy has no comment.
— AP
Asylum seekers from Eritrea protest against the Eritrean ambassador to Israel outside the Foreign Ministry in Jerusalem on June 25, 2018. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
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