EASO COI Report. National service, exit, and return

English

The report is designed to deliver relevant information for international protection determination in Europe. The report is not meant to give a complete view of the current political or human rights situation in Eritrea.

Chapter 1 provides a brief overview about the developments in Eritrea’s foreign affairs, internal affairs, religious issues and legal framework since 2016, including the peace declaration with Ethiopia of 2018.

The subsequent three chapters provide a COI update on the topics relevant for international protection determination: national service, legal and illegal exit, and return. These chapters mostly describe the relevant legal framework governing the concerned issue, the government position on the issue (if available), followed by information from the used publications and by the interlocutors interviewed in Eritrea, Ethiopia, and Europe.

The drafting of this report was finalised in August 2019. Any event taking place after this date is not included in this report.

EASO would like to acknowledge the State Secretariat for Migration (SEM), Division Analysis (Länderanalyse SEM, Switzerland), as the drafter of this report.

The following national asylum and migration departments have reviewed the report, together with EASO:

Germany, Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF), Country Analysis

Sweden, Swedish Migration Agency, Section for Information Analysis

This report was written according to the EASO COI Report Methodology (June 2019).

Policy

The policy implemented by the Commissioner General is based on a thorough analysis of accurate and up-to-date information on the general situation in the country of origin. This information is collated in a professional manner from various, objective sources, including the EASO, the UNHCR, relevant international human rights organisations, non-governmental organisations, professional literature and coverage in the media. When determining policy, the Commissioner General does not only examine the COI Focuses written by Cedoca and published on this website, as these deal with just one aspect of the general situation in the country of origin. The fact that a COI Focus could be out-of-date does not mean that the policy that is being implemented by the Commissioner General is no longer up-to-date.

When assessing an application for asylum, the Commissioner General not only considers the actual situation in the country of origin at the moment of decision-making, he also takes into account the individual situation and personal circumstances of the applicant for international protection. Every asylum application is examined individually. An applicant must comprehensively demonstrate that he has a well-founded fear of persecution or that there is a clear personal risk of serious harm. He cannot, therefore, simply refer back to the general conditions in his country, but must also present concrete, credible and personal facts.

There is no policy paper for this country available on the website.

Land: 
Eritrea

Information about the asylum procedure, tailored to the asylum seeker, can be found at : asyluminbelgium.be.