Escaping Eritrea

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ (distant coughing) ♪ ♪ >> We just slept on the floor.

That was our space right there.

That was it.

♪ ♪ Some were desperate.

All were desperate.

♪ ♪ It was rough.

The interrogations... That's the first time I saw a dead body.

I was trying to hang in there.

As time went by, I started slowly to deteriorate.

The only thing that helped me was to avoid thinking about anything and everything.

Just take it a day at a time.

Because if you stop to think, it's...

It's too much to bear.

♪ ♪ >> NARRATOR: Over the past two decades, more than a half a million Eritreans have fled their home country.

They say they are escaping one of the most repressive and secretive dictatorships in the world.

>> The country is led on fear.

Everybody is afraid for their safety.

(multiple gunshots, shouting) >> Eritrean officials have committed crimes against humanity.

>> NARRATOR: Filming and reporting in Eritrea is almost impossible.

>> MICHAEL (in Tigrinya): >> NARRATOR: But for more than five years, we've been gathering secretly shot footage from inside the country and interviewing people who've escaped.

>> People are angry.

In every district, in every zone, in every area, there is a prison.

>> DESTA (in Tigrinya): ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ >> NARRATOR: Tigray, Northern Ethiopia.

Our investigation began here in the winter of 2016.

A group of refugees had just escaped neighboring Eritrea.

They were part of a mass exodus.

Half a million and counting.

Thousands of them unaccompanied children.

(children chatter) >> TOMAS (in Tigrinya): ♪ ♪ >> NARRATOR: The children told us they were fleeing repression, imprisonment, and forced conscription into the Eritrean military.

♪ ♪ >> RIGAT (in Tigrinya): ♪ ♪ (man shouting commands) >> (in Tigrinya): (chanting in Tigrinya) >> NARRATOR: Eritrea is often described as Africa's North Korea.

It's been ruled by one man, Isaias Afwerki, since 1991, when it won a war of independence from Ethiopia.

There are no national elections, no parliament, no independent judiciary, no free press.

(distant gunfire) Amid ongoing conflict with Ethiopia, the president imposed mandatory national service for all Eritreans.

>> It's not our own making.

It's not, it's not been our own choice.

We never wanted to go this way, but it's been imposed upon us, and we have to survive and live with it.

It's not a question of national service or avoiding the national service.

If you aspire to become someone in this society, and have good-quality life, you work for that.

You don't get it free.

People learn it either the easy way or the hard way.

>> (shouting) >> NARRATOR: Critics accuse the regime of locking up anyone who opposes it, anyone who tries to flee the country, and anyone who avoids conscription.

The president has always publicly denied those charges.

♪ ♪ >> MICHAEL: >> NARRATOR: In a safe house in Ethiopia's capital, we met a man named Michael.

He'd just escaped from Eritrea, and smuggled out something remarkable-- secretly shot footage from inside one of the country's military-run prisons.

>> MICHAEL: ♪ ♪ (indistinct chatter) >> NARRATOR: Michael told us he was arrested in 2011 for trying to avoid military service.

He was then held here, in Ade Abieto prison, just outside the capital, Asmara, for more than four years.

>> MICHAEL: >> NARRATOR: He said a sympathetic guard helped him smuggle in a small camera.

>> MICHAEL: >> NARRATOR: And he worked with one other trusted prisoner.

>> MICHAEL: (indistinct chatter) >> NARRATOR: The other inmates were not aware Michael was filming.

>> MICHAEL: >> NARRATOR: The prisoners can be seen packed into large holding rooms.

According to Michael, they can be held like this for years without trial.

>> MICHAEL: (distant coughing) >> NARRATOR: Michael said many of his fellow inmates were there for avoiding conscription like him, or attempting to escape the country, or helping family members flee.

(indistinct chatter) >> MICHAEL: >> GUARD (in Tigrinya): >> MICHAEL: >> GUARD: >> MICHAEL: ♪ ♪ >> NARRATOR: Michael was one of more than 30 Eritrean refugees we interviewed over the course of our investigation.

For their safety, we agreed to conceal many of their identities.

We also reviewed and verified more than ten hours of secretly shot footage from inside the country.

The Eritrean government would not speak to us about what we'd found, other than to say the allegations were "astounding" and that they'd seen many fabricated stories before.

>> MICHAEL: ♪ ♪ (man speaking, voice distorted) >> NARRATOR: Shortly after meeting Michael, we made contact with a secret group of Eritrean activists.

We met them in a café in the Ethiopian capital.

♪ ♪ >> MAN (in Tigrinya): >> NARRATOR: They told us they were in touch with a network of fellow activists in Eritrea who could provide us with more undercover footage from inside the country.

They said it was dangerous and would take time.

We would have to wait.

♪ ♪ Human rights groups accuse Eritrea of running a national network of jails and detention facilities like the one Michael filmed.

For two years, a United Nations team tried to investigate this network.

They were forbidden from entering the country.

>> What we did at the commission of inquiry was to use satellite imagery to be able to identify a certain number of detention centers.

But anything to do with facts and figures and actual statistics is very difficult to get in Eritrea.

It all goes to the opaqueness of the system.

There is no audit or real figure of the number of prisoners.

This is very worrying, because any prison system, official prison system, should be in fact in a position to have a list of all those in their custody.

And this is not possible to get in Eritrea.

Lots of people, when they are taken in, do not even know why they have been arrested.

They have no clue once they're in there when they will get out.

They don't have legal representation.

They're not taken to a court.

Many have been held incommunicado.

There is no rhyme or reason as to how long somebody would be in detention.

>> We were being constantly beaten for not working hard or fast enough.

In many of the prisons and farms I was detained, we never had shelter.

>> NARRATOR: As part of its inquiry, the U.N. collected testimony from more than 800 Eritreans.

One of those who gave evidence was Hanna Petros Solomon.

>> Every Eritrean has been scarred by the self-proclaimed President Isaias Afwerki, and all I am asking of you today is to bear witness to these scars and do what is just.

Look through the façade and grant freedom, justice to the Eritrean people.

>> NARRATOR: Hanna now lives in the United States.

In 2009, she had tried to flee Eritrea to avoid military service.

>> We got caught and then we were taken to prison.

We were interrogated.

We were brought in one-by-one.

They would ask us questions.

Who did we plan it with?

What's the name?

Who else knows?

And throughout the night, they would take in one of the smugglers, and they would start beating them up, so we could hear them screaming throughout the night.

There were a lot of cargo containers, and prisoners were kept in there.

One day, someone was, kept banging, but the guards didn't listen, didn't go over to check.

It was in the summer, and it can get really hot in summer.

So they kept banging to ask them to let them know, but they completely ignored them, because-- even we could hear them from inside-- and then when they opened the door, someone had died in there.

♪ ♪ This area right here is where naval base is.

Let me zoom in...

So I remember vividly we were kept in this hangar right here.

It's actually two different spaces.

So this space was filled with inmates and you could hear them screaming.

This is where they interrogated us and there was another room.

They kept some inmates here.

I remember there was one Eritrean smuggler who had burnt skin who was held here.

So they would let us out, use the beach over here to defecate or whatever for the morning, and then we would go back to that spot right there.

>> NARRATOR: After nine months in prison, Hanna said she was sent here, to Sawa military training base, where all Eritreans start their mandatory national service.

♪ ♪ >> (singing in Tigrinya) (soldiers chanting) >> NARRATOR: In Eritrean propaganda, Sawa is depicted as a happy place where citizens become good patriotic soldiers.

Hanna told us the reality for her was very different.

>> We were supposed to be military trained, officially, anyway.

So they took us to Sawa, but after two days in Sawa, they were gathering up women from everywhere.

They took us to farms.

So I went to three or four different farms, just working the fields.

We would plant, weed, do a bit of everything.

And throughout our work, our guards would make deals with other generals who had farms nearby.

So they would take us there, do the work, and take the money, I guess.

Throughout our stay in these different farms, there were many...

Many women, who were either threatened or were asked for sexual favors in exchange for cell phones, a phone call, in exchange for water, in exchange for pads, menstrual pads-- for anything.

Some were desperate.

All were desperate.

And I guess when, in situations when you didn't have anything, and you were kept half-starving... those favors were... something to consider.

♪ ♪ >> NARRATOR: Hanna's story mirrored the accounts of many other refugees we met in camps along the border with Ethiopia.

♪ ♪ Sarim told us he'd just recently escaped from Eritrea.

>> SARIM (in Tigrinya): >> NARRATOR: In his first attempt to escape, Sarim said he was shot in the arm and leg while trying to cross the border and taken straight to prison with untreated wounds.

>> SARIM: >> NARRATOR: Sarim told us he was held like this for two years and three months.

>> SARIM: >> NARRATOR: In our interviews with refugees, one prison kept coming up: Wi'a Camp.

It's in the Danakil Depression, one of the hottest places on Earth.

>> TESFAY (in Tigrinya): >> NARRATOR: Tesfay said he was held at Wi'a as punishment for trying to flee military service.

>> TESFAY: >> NARRATOR: Daniel, a Christian pastor, and Kiros, a soldier, were also detained in Wi'a prison camp.

They say that they too were held in the underground cell known as "the oven."

>> DANIEL (in Tigrinya): >> KIROS (in Tigrinya): (protesters shouting, whistling) >> U.N., shame on you!

U.N., shame on you!

U.N., shame on you!

>> Why is everyone lying?

Why is everyone lying?

U.N., stop, stop, stop!

(people shouting, horns blowing) >> NARRATOR: In June 2016, the U.N. investigators were ready to announce their findings.

>> Hands off Eritrea!

>> U.N., shame on you!

U.N., shame on you!

>> NARRATOR: Supporters of the Eritrean government staged a protest in Geneva, accusing the U.N. of bias.

(protesters chanting) The U.N. report recommended Eritrea be referred to the International Criminal Court.

>> Eritrean officials have committed crimes against humanity.

The crimes of enslavement, imprisonment, enforced disappearance, torture, persecution, rape, murder, and other inhumane acts have been committed as part of a widespread and systematic campaign against the civilian population since 1991.

The aim of the campaign has been to maintain control of the population and perpetuate the leadership's rule in Eritrea.

>> NARRATOR: In response, the Eritrean government said the accusations were politically motivated, groundless, and an "unwarranted attack."

>> Stepping way over its mandate, the commission has made the incredible judgment that the human rights situation in Eritrea constitutes a threat to international peace and security, as a pretext to send yet another African country to the International Criminal Court.

The commission has not presented evidence to support its accusations.

It fails to prove that the alleged crimes were indeed persistent, widespread, and systematic.

>> Down, down, dictator!

Down, down, dictator!

Down, down, dictator!

(chanting continues) (music playing) >> NARRATOR: For opponents of the regime, the U.N. report was a moment of hope.

(cheers and applause) But for reasons that have never been explained publicly, senior U.N. authorities took no further action.

They declined to speak to us about it.

♪ ♪ By now, it had been more than a year since we'd made contact with the activists trying to get undercover footage out of Eritrea.

We'd received a few clips from them, nothing more.

We were told two had been arrested.

Some had sent messages back to us saying it was too dangerous to film.

Others had broken off all contact.

In the meantime, we continued to gather first-hand accounts from Eritreans who'd escaped.

(sneezing, coughing) >> Think about it, you put these people in a physically difficult position for a long period of time.

That's not, we're not talking about a day, or two days-- this goes for months.

They will be delirious, they will be paranoid, they will be depressed.

>> (coughing) >> There is a sleep deprivation, which is insomnia.

And some people just lose their mind.

They were sane, and they lose their sanity.

>> NARRATOR: Solomon was a doctor in Asmara.

>> This is the hospital, and this is the prisoners' ward, which is outside of the hospital premises.

It had, all in all, 24 beds.

>> NARRATOR: He told us he regularly treated inmates who had been tortured in Ade Abieto prison, as well as another military prison, Mai Serwa.

>> Somebody would be interrogated, and then would sustain severe trauma; inability to move, inability to walk, fractures, sometimes, or just loss of consciousness from severe pain.

And I would get patients like that.

I could only imagine that this person has been tortured repeatedly.

>> NARRATOR: We heard similar accounts of torture from Michael, the former inmate who filmed undercover in Ade Abieto prison.

He told us that prisoners were interrogated, and tortured, in a room here, just above the main courtyard.

He said that when he was first imprisoned, he was subject to months of brutal interrogation.

>> MICHAEL (speaking Tigrinya): >> Everything is very... sadistic.

It's meant to put people down.

It's meant to hurt people, not just physically, but psychologically, as well.

Now, thinking about it calmly, I would say that the same guards that made our lives miserable were miserable themselves.

I think the Eritrean people are the perpetrators and the victims themselves.

It's the system itself.

It's, it's, it's the system.

>> NARRATOR: In Eritrea, Hanna told us, anyone can become a victim.

Her father, Petros Solomon, was once one of the most powerful people in the country, the minister of defense.

>> It was a happy home.

It was good times.

I knew him as the playful father, I didn't know that serious side of him or that other political side of him that I've come to read and know about later on.

>> NARRATOR: In 2001, Hanna's father wrote an open letter with 14 other officials criticizing the president's increasingly authoritarian rule.

Hanna was ten years old at the time.

>> The night before he got arrested, my mom was away.

So I was sleeping with my dad, and when he woke up in the morning, he pulled my leg, so I woke up, I'm, like, "Where are you going?"

He said, "I'll be right back."

I'm, like, "You promise?"

"Sure," and that's the last I remember of him, um... (no audio) (sniffs softly) Sorry... (murmurs) (rubs legs) I thought it would be easier by now.

He left the house, but the military caught him right outside our door.

He disappeared.

We just didn't hear from him anymore.

>> NARRATOR: President Isaias accused Hanna's father and the others of trying to seize power and had 11 of them arrested.

It's thought most of them were imprisoned here, at a top-security facility called Era Ero, specially built for high-profile political prisoners.

The president went on to shut down the free press and jail many journalists.

Hanna's mother, Aster, was studying in the United States when her husband was locked up.

She returned to Eritrea to seek his release.

>> We all went to, to the airport.

We waited for her at the airport, we had flowers.

And we waited for hours.

We waited for two, three hours there, and then eventually we went back home, and call her friends in the States, and they were, like, "No, she made it to the plane, she, she left."

And that's when we found out that they had taken her away.

♪ ♪ Eventually, I think it's someone that got out of prison contacted my grandmother in secret and they told her, "We saw her from afar, she's being kept by herself, but that's about it.

No one talks to her and she's not allowed to talk to anyone."

We just don't have any clue now as to how she's doing or what's going on.

There hasn't been any official response from the government as to the whereabouts of my parents or their well-being.

>> Ever?

>> No.

>> NARRATOR: In our requests to the Eritrean government, we asked about Hanna's parents and other political prisoners, but they would not provide any details.

♪ ♪ Two years into our investigation, we'd heard nothing more from the undercover activists.

But new footage had emerged on the internet of something almost unheard of in Eritrea, a public protest.

It shows a crowd gathering in Asmara.

Then-- gunfire.

(gunshots, screams) The crowd flees.

In one of the refugee camps along the border, we found two young men who said they were there that day, Aman and Redwan.

They told us they were protesting at the Education Ministry because an Islamic school was being put under government control, and a religious leader had been arrested.

>> (speaking Tigrinya): (gunshots, people screaming) >> NARRATOR: Some of the protesters were filming on their phones.

(gunfire) Aman and Redwan told us that when the video was published on the internet, the authorities used it to identify and arrest anyone who was there.

>> (speaking Tigrinya): (military band playing) >> Today some good news out of the Horn of Africa.

>> Ethiopia has agreed to end a two-decade-long feud with Eritrea.

>> In July 2018, Eritrea's president and a new Ethiopian leader, Abiy Ahmed, announced a surprise peace deal.

>> This is a major, major development in East Africa, not only in terms of establishing peace, but hopefully over time bringing some sort of democracy and liberalization.

(cheering, whistles) >> NARRATOR: The border was briefly opened, and families separated by years of hostilities between the two countries were at last reunited.

Jubilant Eritreans hoped that peace would mean the end of compulsory national service, the end of mass imprisonment, and a new dawn for their country.

♪ ♪ >> DESTA (speaking Tigrinya): >> NARRATOR: In the months after the peace deal, the border closed again, and we started to hear reports that little had changed.

We were finally contacted by one of the activists working to smuggle out undercover footage.

He was a prison guard who asked to be called Desta.

>> DESTA: ♪ ♪ >> NARRATOR: Desta told us he was a guard at Ade Abieto prison.

Shortly after the peace deal, he'd started filming with a secret camera that we'd sent to him.

>> DESTA: >> NARRATOR: He filmed new arrivals; some appear to be no more than teenagers.

(indistinct chatter) >> DESTA: (indistinct chatter) >> NARRATOR: Desta confirmed what we'd heard from the former inmate Michael about the torture room.

>> DESTA: >> NARRATOR: Desta then took his secret camera to one of the prison's main detention halls.

The conditions looked very similar to the video that Michael had shared with us four years earlier.

(indistinct chatter) >> DESTA: ♪ ♪ >> NARRATOR: In late 2020, we tried to return to the refugee camps in Tigray.

But journalists were now barred from the region amid an armed conflict between Ethiopia and rebel forces.

Eritrea had joined the fight, and we'd heard reports that the refugee camps had come under attack.

In an audio interview with us, an eyewitness said he'd seen Eritrean soldiers sweep through Hitsats refugee camp.

>> MAN (speaking Tigrinya): >> NARRATOR: The Eritrean government said in a statement that its troops never attacked the camps.

But widely published satellite images show several buildings destroyed and burning at Hitsats and other refugee camps.

And the U.S. State Department says it has received credible reports that Eritrean soldiers engaged in looting, sexual violence, and assaults on refugees in the camps.

The eyewitness told us he knows of several refugees who were taken back to Eritrea and locked up in Ade Abieto prison.

>> MAN: >> NARRATOR: It's now almost five years since the U.N. commission of inquiry accused Eritrean officials of crimes against humanity.

>> Despite all these years of documentation and scrutiny at the international level, it continues, the patterns continue, nothing has changed in terms of human rights.

Arbitrary detention, custody of people without any rule of law, it continues.

There still is no constitution in the country.

There's no free press.

There is no independent judiciary.

National service remains involuntary, indefinite, and is still there.

It's still forced labor, and enslavement of a whole population.

♪ ♪ >> When the peace deal was happening, a lot of my friends, Eritreans, we gathered and we talked, and they're, like, "Oh, finally, peace is here."

And I kept saying, "No, let's wait and see what's happening."

And most of my friends thought I was being pessimistic, or I was being... angry.

But now do you see what I was talking about?

Prisoners are still prisoners.

>> NARRATOR: Hanna's parents have now been in prison for almost 20 years.

(phone ringing out) >> (woman greets in Tigrinya) >> HANNA: >> GRANDMOTHER: >> HANNA: >> GRANDMOTHER: >> HANNA: >> GRANDMOTHER: >> HANNA: >> GRANDMOTHER: >> HANNA: >> GRANDMOTHER: >> HANNA: >> GRANDMOTHER: >> HANNA: >> GRANDMOTHER: (Hanna breathes deeply) ♪ ♪ >> Go to pbs.org/frontline for an interview with filmmaker Evan Williams.

And learn more about the political situation in Eritrea.

Connect with "Frontline" on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and TikTok.

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♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ >> For more on this and other "Frontline" programs, visit our website at pbs.org/frontline.

♪ ♪ "Frontline's" "Escaping Eritrea" is available on Amazon Prime Video.

♪ ♪