[Video] France 24's "Inside Eritrea" report

France 24's Nicolas Germain recently spent a week visiting Eritrea. Predictably, he focused on the politically motivated and exaggerated migration narrative of "5,000 Eritreans leave their country per month", which isn't true at all.*

In the coming weeks, France 24 will air a documentary on Eritrea. If this little clip above is any indication of how objective it will be, then be prepared for a lot of soundbites, false statistics, dramatic background music mixed in with a noun, a verb and an "African North Korea" line. Yawn!

*According to the Eritrean government, around 1,000 economic migrants leave their country per month. Prior to the dubious 5,000 figure came along, the UNHCR, which is cited here by Human Rights Watch, stated only 1,500 Eritreans leave their country per month.

Journalists who use the 5,000 figure per month often cite the UN, but when you check their data, as Eritrean-American journalist Salem Solomon did, it's not true. What UNHCR claimed (without evidence) is there was a one month period in 2015 that showed an abnormal spike of 5,000 leaving their country, which journalists are using as their 5,000 per month soundbite on their Eritrea reports.

Hypothetically speaking, even if  this exaggerated figure is true, so what? Illegal migration is a global phenomenon. Besides, no one talks about the 66,000 Ethiopians who flee their country per month. In fact, if you compare the two countries, Ethiopia is the biggest exporter of migrants in the region both per capita and in total numbers. The only difference is Eritrean migrants are baptized refugees the second they set foot outside their border, while Ethiopians need to pretend to be Eritreans to get that privilege, even though it is Ethiopians who are being slaughtered by the hundreds by their regime and not Eritreans.

Nicolas' debrief in French:

Sponsored Ads