Reflections on the documentary ‘Escaping Eritrea’
On May 4, 2021, PBS released a documentary entitled Escaping Eritrea. This documentary comes 30 years following Eritrean Independence and 20 years following the shut down of the free press. Most of what was known about the conditions within Eritrea were communicated by the ever growing number of refugees fleeing the country or international reports. Even then, the Eritrean diaspora remained divided among those who believed the human rights abuses to be true and those who denied the experiences of Eritreans risking their lives to escape.
One Day Seyoum is a youth-led organisation campaigning to end human rights abuses committed against the Eritrean people and supporting Eritrean refugees worldwide. We mobilize Eritreans through the media and our community reflects the multitude of experiences in the diaspora, from those born abroad to those who recently fled. We are named after Seyoum Tsehaye, one of the journalists imprisoned in the 2001 shutdown of the free press. Now, 20 years after his arrest, the world is finally able to see the depth of corruption and injustice that he and his colleagues sought to expose.
The Eritrean spirit is one of resilience. Michael, an Eritrean man living under an alias in Addis Ababa, is one of the many heroes featured in this documentary. He risked his life under one of the world’s most brutal regimes to videotape the conditions of the prison in which he was held -- a prison that many were held in for years, without trial. I cannot overstate Michael’s depth of bravery in planning, documenting and subsequently fleeing a country where ‘shoot to kill’ is a tool used to punish those who attempted to cross the border. His courage resulted in historical documentation of one of the ways the Eritrean regime terrorizes the Eritrean population.
Eritreans did not survive 30 years of war in order to experience unspeakable terror under their own leader. As Escaping Eritrea depicted, Eritreans know what it means to be liberated and continue to actively resist the regime. The brave women and men who gave their testimonies in this documentary did so knowing the power of the media and the power of sharing their stories. The Eritrean community always had a duty to believe those fleeing -- now we have the duty of amplifying the very first live form of documentation that depicts what those fleeing have experienced.
As we continue to share thoughts and resources for our community across social media, please reflect on the interconnection of various human rights denied to the Eritrean people. Without access to information or an active civil society, Eritreans under the regime are going to dire lengths to share their stories with a global audience. With the documentation of a single prison, we are barely scratching the surface of the human rights abuses being committed within the country. While our community continues to process Escaping Eritrea, I hope the strength of those featured in the documentary reminds everyone of why we fight for liberation. Eritrea is not free until all of our people are free.
By Michal Petros, Fundraising and Partnerships Coordinator at One Day Seyoum