Methodology

This report is based on research conducted between September 2008 and January 2009 by several researchers in the Africa division of Human Rights Watch.

Due to severe restrictions on freedom of movement and expression and the serious security risks individuals could face if they communicated with Human Rights Watch staff on the ground in Eritrea, Human Rights Watch decided to conduct most of the research for this report outside Eritrea by interviewing refugees.

Human Rights Watch researchers interviewed 53 Eritrean refugees and asylum seekers in Italy, the United Kingdom, and Djibouti. All interviews with the exception of four were with asylum seekers and refugees who had left Eritrea within the last 18 months, and therefore had the most up-to-date experience of conditions in the country. Most of the refugees were men aged 18 to 50; women constituted only a small proportion of the refugees in Italy and Djibouti.

In order to ensure the confidentiality of the interviews and cross-check information, the interviews were generally conducted in private in a separate room, with only the interviewee, a Human Rights Watch researcher, and a translator present to translate from Tigrinya into English—where translation was necessary. Some interviewees spoke sufficient English for Human Rights Watch to conduct the interview without translation. Human Rights Watch visited five different towns in Italy to interview different groups of refugees and worked with several different translators in an effort to ensure that the translation was unbiased.

Many of the refugees were fearful of describing their experiences in Eritrea because they were concerned that doing so could result in repercussions for their families. After Human Rights Watch explained the confidential nature of the interviews, some interviewees were chosen at random and other people volunteered to speak. Despite the wide variety of research locations, the interviews were consistent in describing patterns of abuses and conditions in various detention facilities. The accounts were also cross-checked with other independent sources to ensure their credibility. In some cases where specific incidents could not be cross-checked with independent sources, we have included descriptions of the abuse if we identified the case as part of a broader pattern independently documented by other credible sources.

Although Human Rights Watch did not conduct a formal fact-finding investigation in Eritrea due to the high risk posed to interviewees, a researcher did visit the country informally to cross-check certain areas of information.

Researchers also interviewed Eritrean academics, NGO activists, and journalists in exile in Italy and the UK as well as seven non-Eritrean academics, journalists, and experts based in London and four diplomats and international officials who live and work in Eritrea. Researchers also drew on medico-legal reports documenting evidence of torture in the cases of people fleeing to the UK prepared by the Medical Foundation for Care of the Victims of Torture, based in the UK. Between 2007 and 2008 the Medical Foundation received more than 150 requests for help from Eritreans claiming to have suffered torture and/or ill-treatment. Human Rights Watch also obtained documents from the Eritrean embassies in London and Washington, DC.