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STORY: ETHIOPIA / ERITREAN CHILDREN
TRT: 2.50
SOURCE: UNHCR
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ERITREAN / ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: 27, 28 OCTOBER 2010, MAIAINI REFUGEE CAMP NEAR SHIRE, NORTHERN ETHIOPIA
1. Various shots, young refugee boys playing soccer at the Maiaini refugee camp
2. Various shots, Maiaini refugee camp
3. Wide shot, sixteen year old Rigat with the young boys in her care
4. SOUNDBITE (Eritrean) Rigat Tewold, child refugee:
“I think about my parents a lot and I feel unhappy because I’m alone I’ve been here for a year and a half now and so far I haven’t had much hope. But one day I d like to be able to support myself and my parents.”
5. Various shots, Rigat outside her shelter in the camp
6. SOUNDBITE (Eritrean) Furtuna Andemeskel, child refugee:
“I don’t want to go back because I need to continue my education. If I return, they will send me to a military training camp. I did the right thing to come here, because of the conditions in Eritrea. But I miss my parents. I’m homesick.”
7. Various shots, Futuna inside her shelter
SOUNDBITE (Eritrean) Furtuna Andemeskel, child refugee:
“During the night I’m afraid because I’m young and I’m here without my parents. I’m worried because if someone gets into my room, they can harm me.”
8. Med shot, Futuna walks through camp
9. SOUNDBITE (English) Bethel Amanuel, Child Protection officer, OASIS charity:
“Some of them have tried to cross back but were caught by the security. We don’t believe it will be easy for them go back to Eritrea at this moment, so the easiest thing is to keep them in reality but give them a way they can adapt to this place. Not full time, but while they are here, enjoy it, be busy and not forget that they’re children.”
10. Various shots, refugee children at the camp school
11. Various shots, refugee boys eating outside their shelter
12. SOUNDBITE (English) Bethel Amanuel, Child Protection officer, OASIS charity:
“They say no-one is here, our mother is suffering, our elder brother is not here, our father is a soldier, so why don’t we just cross the border go and see what we can find out. What they find here, is that it could be better. You can feed them and give them shelter but you cannot give them a family, so most of them regret that they crossed the border.”
13. Med shot, refugee boys eating
14. Various shots, Rigat cooking outside camp
They could be young boys anywhere, enjoying a game of football. But these are no ordinary children. And it’s not even a proper ball just an old coconut. ‘Because these kids have nothing, they're all refugees, and an alarming number of them are here without their families.
They stay at the sprawling Maiaini refugee camp in northern Ethiopia, a temporary home to over eleven thousand people.
All have fled across the border from neighboring Eritrea. Older lone children like sixteen year old Rigat care for the young boys. It gives her structure and companionship in an otherwise empty life.
SOUNDBITE (Eritrean) Rigat Tewold, child refugee:
“I think about my parents a lot and I feel unhappy because I’m alone I’ve been here for a year and a half now and so far I haven’t had much hope. But one day I d like to be able to support myself and my parents.”
Rigat says she fled Eritrea because there was no chance to attend a school near her home. At first she regretted the decision, but it was impossible to return there is no immediate repatriation arrangement with Eritrea. So now she wants to make the best of it.
Her fourteen year old friend Futuna also left her home country because of problems with her education. She failed school exams back in Eritrea which means automatic conscription to the country's army.
SOUNDBITE (Eritrean) Furtuna Andemeskel, child refugee:
“I don’t want to go back because I need to continue my education. If I return, they will send me to a military training camp. I did the right thing to come here, because of the conditions in Eritrea. But I miss my parents. I’m homesick.”
Futuna didn't tell her parents she was leaving she knew they would have stopped her. She has since lost touch with them and now alone in the male dominated camp, she is vulnerable and often subjected to harassment.
SOUNDBITE (Eritrean) Furtuna Andemeskel, child refugee:
“During the night I’m afraid because I’m young and I’m here without my parents. I’m worried because if someone gets into my room, they can harm me.”
But lone refugee children like her have few options.
SOUNDBITE (English) Bethel Amanuel, Child Protection officer, OASIS charity:
“Some of them have tried to cross back but were caught by the security. We don’t believe it will be easy for them go back to Eritrea at this moment, so the easiest thing is to keep them in reality but give them a way they can adapt to this place. Not full time, but while they are here, enjoy it, be busy and not forget that they’re children.”
An important part of that is going to school and making the most of free education in the camp though increase in numbers of children arriving in the camps means classrooms are overflowing.
UNHCR and other aid agencies also provide these children with basic shelter and food. But it’s a harsh life. The boys say they lack shoes, clothes and protection from mosquitoes. But the emotional struggle is the toughest. Aid workers say many of the unaccompanied children suffer from depression.
Their greatest comfort is a common bond. Aged nine to ten, they crossed the border into the unknown unaware of difficulties that lay ahead.
SOUNDBITE (English) Bethel Amanuel, Child Protection officer, OASIS charity:
“They say no-one is here, our mother is suffering, our elder brother is not here, our father is a soldier, so why don’t we just cross the border...go and see what we can find out. What they find here, is that it could be better. You can feed them and give them shelter but you cannot give them a family, so most of them regret that they crossed the border.”
Because they entered Ethiopia unofficially without documents, there is no immediate way for these boys to return. Crossing back into Eritrea illegally is too risky.
They can only hope that one day there will be arrangements made for them to repatriate safely but even if they do, many may find that this experience has changed them for life. And the reality is that many of these children don't actually want to go back to Eritrea.
Rigat says she would rather stay here in the camp, even if it means living in poor conditions for many years to come.