36 — EASO Country of Origin Information <strong>Report</strong> — <strong>Eritrea</strong>. Country Focus Some key military training camps in <strong>Eritrea</strong> (269) Several training camps have been set up across the country to provide military training to recruits mobilised directly by the local administration for military service or conscripted during giffas. These include Wia, Kiloma (Klima) and Maeter (see map above) (270). Until the outbreak of the border war in 1998, local administrations were responsible for mobilising all national service recruits, who were notified by letter or in person of the time and place (e.g. stadium or school) where they needed to report in order to be transported to the Sawa training camp. Round-ups were carried out even at this stage, but they were easier to evade than the later giffas (271). 3.3.3 Recruitment of minors Standard recruitment procedures operate on the basis of the education system, which means that pupils are called up to Sawa as soon as they have finished their 11th year at school, regardless of their age. Conscripts may therefore (269) Map created by State Secretariat for Migration (Switzerland), 2015, based on Amnesty International, <strong>Eritrea</strong>: Suspected Detention Centers [map], n.d.; Local contact, interview, Ethiopia, 17 September 2014. All borders and names used on this map do not imply official endorsement or acceptance by the European Union. The border line between <strong>Eritrea</strong> and Ethiopia corresponds to the <strong>Eritrea</strong>-Ethiopia Boundary Commission’s ruling of 2002 (cf. map page 11). (270) Kibreab, G., interview, 5-6 September 2009; Women’s Refugee Commission, Young and Astray: An Assessment of Factors Driving the Movement of Unaccompanied Children and Adolescents from <strong>Eritrea</strong> into Ethiopia, Sudan and Beyond, May 2013; Home Office (United Kingdom), Country Information and Guidance <strong>Eritrea</strong>: National (incl. Military) Service, 11 March 2015, p. 41; Landinfo, Temanotat <strong>Eritrea</strong>: Nasjonaltjeneste, 23 March 2015, p. 13. (271) Landinfo, Temanotat <strong>Eritrea</strong>: Nasjonaltjeneste, 23 March 2015, p. 9.
EASO Country of Origin Information <strong>Report</strong> — <strong>Eritrea</strong>. Country Focus — 37 be 17 years old or even younger (272). According to a leaked <strong>Eritrea</strong>n military report, one-third of those drafted during the 21st recruitment round in 2010 were under 18 (273). The <strong>Eritrea</strong>n government claimed that the under-age pupils attending Warsay-Yikealo school did not belong to the army (274). The conscription of minors for national service during giffas is also a frequent occurrence and age is often judged merely by appearance. Parents who submit identity papers proving their child’s real age are often ignored (275). One report claims that kebabi administrations conscript minors for national service partly to make up numbers but also for arbitrary reasons or as a reprisal against the child’s family (276). 3.4 12th school year at Sawa The 12th school year at the Sawa-based Warsay-Yikealo school involves a combination of academic and military training and labour deployments (277). The Ministry of Education is responsible for the academic session, which begins after the conscripts are recruited in July or August, lasts seven or eight months and focuses on the propagation of national values, i.e. the PFDJ’s ideology (278). Pupils are subjected to military discipline during this period and can be mobilised repeatedly for military training events (279). According to several sources of a Norwegian fact-finding mission, however, it is likely that the Warsay-Yikealo school has become less military in nature in recent years, since it is now primarily an educational institution (280). The academic session ends in February or March with tests in five different subjects (two of which must be English and Mathematics) held over a period of several days, known as the <strong>Eritrea</strong>n School Leaving Certificate Examination (or the <strong>Eritrea</strong>n Secondary Education Certificate Examination) (281). All tested pupils receive a certificate, regardless of their marks (282). The precise length of the military training which then begins differs from year to year; the sources refer to periods of between six weeks and six months (283). A few sources state that part of the military training takes place before the academic session, which again suggests that the arrangements are not identical every year (284). The pupils who score best in the final examination can continue their education at one of the country’s nine colleges after completing their 12th school year. Since 2007, those who fare less well have been able to start vocational (272) Amnesty International, <strong>Eritrea</strong>: 20 years of independence, but still no freedom, 9 May 2013, p. 25; US Department of State, Country <strong>Report</strong>s on Human Rights Practices for 2013 — <strong>Eritrea</strong>, 27 February 2014, p. 20; UN Human Rights Council, <strong>Report</strong> of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in <strong>Eritrea</strong>, Sheila B. Keetharuth, 13 May 2014, p. 9; Schweizerische Flüchtlingshilfe, <strong>Eritrea</strong>: Rekrutierung von Minderjährigen, 21 January 2015, p. 3; Child Soldiers International, Louder Than Words, 2012, p. 41; Human Rights Concern — <strong>Eritrea</strong>, <strong>Report</strong> on Child Rights Violations in <strong>Eritrea</strong>, 19 November 2013. (273) Mekonnen, D.R., Translation of the <strong>Report</strong> of the Commander of the Sawa Military Training Camp to the Office of the <strong>Eritrea</strong>n President, 13 November 2010. (274) UN Human Rights Council, <strong>Report</strong> of the Working Group of the Universal Periodic Review, 8 March 2010, pp. 4-5. (275) UN Human Rights Council, <strong>Report</strong> of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in <strong>Eritrea</strong>, Sheila B. Keetharuth, 13 May 2014, p. 9; Child Soldiers International, Louder Than Words, 2012, pp. 41-42; Schweizerische Flüchtlingshilfe, <strong>Eritrea</strong>: Rekrutierung von Minderjährigen, 21 January 2015, p. 4; Women’s Refugee Commission, Young and Astray: An Assessment of Factors Driving the Movement of Unaccompanied Children and Adolescents from <strong>Eritrea</strong> into Ethiopia, Sudan and Beyond, May 2013, p. 12. (276) Schweizerische Flüchtlingshilfe, <strong>Eritrea</strong>: Rekrutierung von Minderjährigen, 21 January 2015, p. 5. (277) BBC, <strong>Eritrea</strong> rapped for ‘military’ schooling, 11 January 2004; Kibreab, G., The Open-Ended <strong>Eritrea</strong>n National Service: The Driver of Forced Migration, 15-16 October 2014, p. 9; Local contact, interview, Ethiopia, 17 September 2014. (278) Mekonnen, D.R., Translation of the <strong>Report</strong> of the Commander of the Sawa Military Training Camp to the Office of the <strong>Eritrea</strong>n President, 13 November 2010; Local contact, interview, Ethiopia, 17 September 2014; Landinfo, Temanotat <strong>Eritrea</strong>: Nasjonaltjeneste, 23 March 2015, p. 11. (279) Child Soldiers International, Louder Than Words, 2012, p. 41; HRW, Service for Life. State Repression and Indefinite Conscription in <strong>Eritrea</strong>, 16 April 2009, p. 50; Tronvoll, K., and Mekonnen, D.R., The African Garrison State. Human Rights & Political Development in <strong>Eritrea</strong>, 2014, p. 181. (280) Landinfo, Temanotat <strong>Eritrea</strong>: Nasjonaltjeneste, 23 March 2015, p. 9. (281) Local contact, interview, Ethiopia, 17 September 2014; <strong>Eritrea</strong> — Ministry of Information, Warsay-Yikealo Secondary School: Preparing Students for Academic Excellence, 2 April 2010; <strong>Eritrea</strong> — Ministry of Information, <strong>Eritrea</strong>: National School Leaving Examination Got Underway Today, 17 March 2014; NOKUT, <strong>Report</strong> on recognition of higher education in <strong>Eritrea</strong> and Ethiopia, January 2013, p. 9. (282) NOKUT, <strong>Report</strong> on recognition of higher education in <strong>Eritrea</strong> and Ethiopia, January 2013, p. 9. (283) UN Human Rights Council, <strong>Report</strong> of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in <strong>Eritrea</strong>, Sheila B. Keetharuth, 13 May 2014, p. 12; Local contact, interview, Ethiopia, 17 September 2014; Udlændingestyrelsen (Danish Immigration Service), <strong>Eritrea</strong> — Drivers and Root Causes of Emigration, National Service and the Possibility of Return, Appendix edition, December 2014, p. 11. (284) Human Rights Concern — <strong>Eritrea</strong>, <strong>Report</strong> on Child Rights Violations in <strong>Eritrea</strong>, 19 November 2013; Landinfo, Temanotat <strong>Eritrea</strong>: Nasjonaltjeneste, 23 March 2015, p. 12.
Change language