This large humanitarian emigration is the result of several decades of war and a government that is considered to be among the most repressive in the world. Eritreans are conscripted into government service for years on end and are generally barred from leaving the country legally. Although migration routes have become increasingly difficult and destination countries more restrictive—particularly amid conflict and securitization in neighboring Ethiopia and Sudan—Eritreans have continued to seek refuge abroad. As of 2024, there were more than 683,000 registered refugees and asylum seekers from Eritrea, according to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).
While most Eritrean refugees and asylum seekers live elsewhere in East Africa, with the largest numbers in Ethiopia (nearly 180,000 as of 2024) or Sudan (150,100), many Eritreans have taken dangerous journeys to Europe, with Germany home to the third largest Eritrean refugee population (71,300). Despite their search for safety, Eritrean refugees have in recent years found themselves caught up in brand-new civil conflicts in the Horn of Africa, and have often had to flee again—or been forced back to their troubled homeland.
This article provides a history of emigration from Eritrea and describes the harsh conditions that people have fled. It outlines the major migrant routes and the challenges that Eritreans have often faced abroad.
gure 1. Eritrean Refugees and Asylum Seekers in Surrounding Region, 2024
Note: Map is an illustration and is not intended to imply endorsement or acceptance of territorial boundaries.
Source: UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), “Refugee Data Finder,” updated October 8, 2024, available online.
A History of Militarization and Repression
Eritrea’s 30-year war of independence from Ethiopia, which ended in 1991, created a political culture oriented towards militarization. Two years after the war ended, Eritreans in a referendum voted overwhelmingly in favor of independence and the ruling militia group transformed into the People’s Front for Democracy and Justice (PFDJ), which became the sole legal political party. Despite early signs of movement towards a constitutional democracy, the government was generally repressive and engaged in swift crackdown on criticism by former fighters. The government began requiring national service and in 1994 introduced mandatory military training with very few exemptions. National service, referred to as “Sawa” after the location of the main military training center, became required for men and women ages 18 to 40. It involved six months of military training and one year of unpaid service in the military; Eritreans eligible for higher education were required to complete one year of unpaid work in civil service after graduation.
The border war with Ethiopia (1998-2000) further entrenched a culture of enforced sacrifice and militarization. The war altered Eritrea’s political climate, focusing human rights and humanitarian concerns around war-related issues. During the conflict, Eritreans who had completed national service were recalled to serve in the military. A cessation of hostilities and subsequent peace agreement in 2000 provided for a UN peacekeeping force in a buffer zone along the border. However, the two countries remained in what was effectively a cold war. Those recalled to military service were not demobilized. In 2001, amid widespread criticism of the government’s handling of the war, the regime of unelected President Isaias Afwerki cracked down on critics and shut down media organizations.
In 2002, the government indefinitely extended national service for current enlistees—many of whom had already been serving for up to six years—and future entrants. The following year, the country’s sole university was closed and all high school students were required to complete an additional year of education that was to be preceded and followed by military training and was located at a boarding school in Sawa, the site of the nation’s military training center. While the number of Eritrean refugees and asylum seekers had generally declined until this period, to a low of 149,000 in 2003, it began increasing again and has been sloping upward ever since (see Figure 2).
Figure 2. Eritrean Refugees and Asylum Seekers, 1991-2024
Source: UNHCR, “Refugee Data Finder,” updated October 8, 2024, available online.
In a dramatic shakeup of politics in Ethiopia, Abiy Ahmed became prime minister in 2018 and officially made peace with Eritrea, for which he was awarded a Nobel Peace Prize. However, Abiy did so without addressing concerns about the border situation from Eritreans or people of northern Ethiopia’s Tigray region. Following a brief honeymoon period, tensions worsened in northern Ethiopia and resulted in a 2020 war between Tigrayans and Ethiopia’s central government, with which Eritrea was momentarily heavily aligned. Despite the peace agreement signed in 2022, relations between Eritrea, Ethiopia, and Tigray continue to be tense. In recent weeks, observers have warned about the possibility of another outbreak of war, and both Ethiopia and Eritrea have mobilized troops, though Abiy in March 2025 ruled out concerns that landlocked Ethiopia would go to war with Eritrea over access to the Red Sea.
The perennial war footing in Eritrea and a siege mentality amid perceived military threats has led to ongoing mass militarization. The government periodically uses gifa (mass roundups) to seek out people who may be attempting to evade military service, and in 2022 and 2023 called up both reservists in their 50s and 60s as well as school-age children.
Repressive Conditions Drive an Exodus
Political and humanitarian conditions in Eritrea have continued to worsen. Many Eritreans have spent their entire working lives in unpaid, compulsory government service. Those seen to be refusing to serve have routinely been subjected to harsh, degrading treatment including arbitrary detention, torture, and sexual violence. Activists and scholars have described the national service as forced labor and slavery. These conditions have led Eritreans to make frequent attempts to escape, despite extreme danger. It is illegal to leave the country without an exit visa, which is nearly impossible to obtain.
Observers generally agree that there is no rule of law or political freedom in Eritrea. The court system is not well developed and there are many accounts of people held without trial simply because there is no functioning legal system. In 2024, Freedom House ranked Eritrea’s protection of civil liberties on par with that of North Korea. The constitution was never ratified and there have been no elections; Isaias has been in power since 1993. There is also no freedom of information, and Eritrea consistently has one of the highest numbers of jailed reporters in Africa. All but four state-sanctioned religions (the Eritrean Orthodox Tewahedo Church, Sunni Islam, the Catholic Church, and the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Eritrea) are banned, and followers of other denominations are subject to arrest and imprisonment. Conscripts are prevented from practicing religion, and police have undertaken door-to-door searches and arrested people solely for their religious identity. Despite this, Pentecostalism has spread, particularly among young people in urban areas, and there is some evidence that Evangelical and Pentecostal Christians are among those who most consistently flee the country.
There is also a lack of personal freedoms. Ongoing national service means people often cannot be with their families or choose where to live. Even Eritreans selected for the civil service typically have no right to choose where they are assigned and at any time can be reconscripted for additional training or service.
The Eritrean state has extended its reach across borders. Eritrean offices abroad control access to identification cards and other documents people would need to regularize their status elsewhere or travel onward legally. Consequently, Eritreans abroad are expected to sign a “letter of apology” and agree to pay a 2 percent tax on their annual income. This process also deepens control internally, as the state has imprisoned, fined, and taken business licenses or property from emigrants’ families. The government also benefits indirectly from remittances sent home to family members from abroad, which effectively subsidize unpaid national service and the lack of a public safety net.
Migration Routes and Destinations
For decades, Eritreans’ journeys have been shaped by fraught regional politics and shifting global migration policies. Because most cannot migrate legally, Eritreans who flee do so at great risk and expense, often beginning with paying smugglers and bribing military officials in Eritrea to access unguarded corridors. Many flee to Sudan, occasionally en route to Libya or destinations farther north. Others cross the militarized southern border into Ethiopia, often as part of a longer journey to places such as Uganda or South Africa. Thousands also head to Djibouti each year, continuing on the eastern route through Yemen to Saudi Arabia.
In Ethiopia, a Warm Welcome Undone by War
In the early 2000s, after the border war ended, Ethiopia started welcoming Eritrean refugees. In 2004, it instituted an open-door policy, granting Eritreans refugee status on a prima facie basis . That same year, Ethiopia established the Shimelba refugee camp for Eritreans and soon established three others in the Tigray region and two in the neighboring Afar region.
Tens of thousands of Eritreans fled into Ethiopia in subsequent years, swelling the population of refugees and asylum seekers from about 3,000 in 2000 to more than 181,000 two decades later (see Figure 3). Ethiopia became a leader in local integration of refugees, adopting an out-of-camp program that allowed some refugees to live wherever they chose, offering scholarships to attend Ethiopian colleges, and adopting legislation to make work permits available to displaced migrants. However, many of these policies remained promises more than realities. More importantly, many Eritreans have felt that Ethiopia was not safe to remain long term, given the fraught history between the two countries and the refugee camps’ location near the still-tense border region. Consequently, the Eritrean population in Ethiopia has been a highly mobile one. In 2015, for example, UNHCR reported that 81,000 registered refugees were no longer in the camps and had likely moved to other countries irregularly.
Figure 3. Eritrean Refugees and Asylum Seekers in Ethiopia, 2000-24
Source: UNHCR, “Refugee Data Finder,” updated October 8, 2024, available online.
In 2018, seismic political change swept through Ethiopia. Despite Abiy’s declaration of peace, his sudden alliance with Eritrea’s Isaias left many refugees in the border region concerned about their safety. For a brief window—and for the first time in two decades—the border was opened, and Eritreans without an exit visa were able to leave their homeland legally. They poured across, both as visitors and to seek protection in Ethiopia. UNHCR estimated that around 6,000 Eritreans arrived every month in 2019. Ultimately, refugees’ concerns proved to be well-founded. In 2020, Ethiopia quietly rolled back its offering of prima facie refugee status to Eritreans and announced the closure of a large refugee camp, Hitsats.
In November 2020, when war broke out between the Ethiopian government and leaders of the Tigray region where four major refugee camps were located, refugees’ worst fears were realized. Eritrean forces allied with the Ethiopian government accessed the camps and forcibly repatriated thousands of refugees. The Hitsats and Shimelba camps were destroyed. The other two were eventually closed, and refugees were relocated to a camp in the Amhara region which as of this writing continues to lack basic services and is regularly attacked by armed militia and bandits. Many fled to Sudan (see below).
There is little information about the current status of Eritreans in Ethiopia, including those who had been living in Sudan and more recently escaped the violence there. An indeterminate number of Eritreans living in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia’s capital, are not receiving assistance and may not be able to obtain refugee status, making it difficult to move on as they might like. Eritreans in the city, with and without legal status, have reported widespread arrests, including while seeking information about travel documents. More than 600 Eritrean refugees were forcibly repatriated from Ethiopia between December 2024 and February 2025.
Once a Restrictive Safe Haven, Sudan Has Turned Deadly
Eritreans have a long but complicated history of migration to neighboring Sudan since at least Eritrea’s war for independence. While many Eritreans in Sudan returned home after independence, a significant population remained, both in and outside refugee camps. The 1998-2000 Eritrea-Ethiopia border war triggered new displacement to Sudan and prevented resident refugees from departing. More recently, amid the Tigray conflict, eastern Sudan saw up to 4,000 daily arrivals of Ethiopians and Eritrean refugees who had been living in Ethiopia.
Eritreans in Sudan have long faced persistent insecurity due to the close political and security ties between the Sudanese and Eritrean governments. Refugees in Sudan are denied political, civil, and social rights. Eritreans’ refugee identity cards restrict their movement to designated areas, primarily refugee camps that offer little protection. The Shagarab camp, for example, is unguarded and has been an infamous hub for kidnappings by human traffickers. Human Rights Watch has documented instances of Sudanese security forces handing Eritreans over to traffickers, while UN investigations have implicated high-ranking Eritrean military officers in cross-border smuggling and ransom schemes. Despite dire conditions in Sudan’s refugee camps, Eritreans have continued crossing into the country for decades. Eritrean refugees have frequently reported being subjected to surveillance and forced to pay bribes to avoid arbitrary detention in Sudan. While some have attempted to start businesses, primarily in the capital, Khartoum, most have lived in persistent precarity and sought onward migration.
The Sudanese civil war that broke out in April 2023, when two rival military factions clashed, had displaced nearly 13 million people as of this March. Large numbers of Sudanese have fled to every neighboring country except, notably, Eritrea. Eritrean refugees in Sudan have also been displaced. Before the conflict, Sudan hosted more than 1 million refugees, including an estimated 126,000 Eritreans, with 75,000 in and around Khartoum and a large population in Kassala, the region bordering Eritrea. Since the conflict began, thousands of Eritreans have reportedly been forcibly returned to Eritrea, while others were killed or fled to places such as South Sudan en route to Uganda, Kenya, and other destinations.
Growing Numbers Heading to Uganda and Kenya
Uganda has long been a key transit point and destination for Eritrean refugees, but its role has grown amid instability in Ethiopia, Sudan, and South Sudan (which faced years of civil war since its 2011 independence). The largest refugee-hosting country in Africa and the fifth largest worldwide, Uganda hosted 1.8 million refugees of all nationalities as of the end of 2024. Although refugee households face persistent poverty and food insecurity, Uganda has garnered international praise for its progressive integration policies, granting refugees freedom of movement and access to work, education, land, and social services. Uganda hosted more than 59,600 Eritrean refugees and asylum seekers as of 2024.
The Eritrean community present in Kampala, Uganda’s capital, since the independence struggle has grown over time to become a large, heterogenous diaspora community. Many Eritrean professionals and entrepreneurs relocated to Kampala after South Sudan’s burgeoning business sector was destroyed by civil war. Many recent arrivals have come in order to reach other countries, in part because Kampala is known as safer than Nairobi and because of the presence of institutions to aid with official resettlement to countries such as Canada or the United States. A massive Eritrean Orthodox Church, commissioned in 2022, marks the prevalence of the Eritrean community in Kampala.
There are signs, however, that this situation may be changing. Uganda is also one of the worst-funded refugee-hosting countries. UNHCR has reported funding shortfalls of hundreds of millions of dollars for its operations in Uganda, and in January 2024 the government made a sharp pivot in its refugee management approach. It ended its open-door policy toward Sudanese refugees, requiring them to register and remain in camps despite a lack of funding for adequate rations and supplies. In July 2024, more than 150 Eritreans were arrested in Kampala for illegally operating small businesses, reflecting growing tensions amid rising numbers of refugees, particularly from the Horn of Africa.
As East Africa’s biggest economy and a major refugee-hosting country as well, Kenya is also a leading destination for Eritreans. However, rights groups point to increasing instability and risks there. Some report that Eritreans fleeing Sudan have had trouble registering as refugees in Kenya. Eritreans attempting to transit Kenya have also been detained and threatened with forced repatriation.
Fewer Legal Pathways Out of Africa
Fewer than 1 percent of refugees worldwide are resettled to third countries. Still, some Eritreans have been resettled in places such as the United States, historically the world’s top resettlement country. The 2,400 Eritreans resettled in fiscal year (FY) 2024 comprised the ninth largest refugee group to arrive in the United States. However, numbers are sure to decline after President Donald Trump suspended refugee admissions on his first day in office.
As pathways to resettlement shrink, irregular migration has grown more dangerous. Many Eritreans have sought irregular migration to Europe via the Central Mediterranean—involving travel from Algeria, Egypt, Libya, or Tunisia to Italy and Malta. In 2024, 73 percent of the more than 2,300 migrants who went missing or died in the Mediterranean, which has been described as the world’s deadliest migratory sea crossing, did so on this route, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM). Search-and-rescue operations have become increasingly scarce as the European Union has tightened its external borders and signed border security agreements (either as a bloc or individual Member States) with countries such as Libya. Eritrean and other migrants in Libya have faced murder, torture, enslavement, sexual violence, arbitrary detention, and other abuses, according to a UN fact-finding mission.
Eritreans also migrate to the Middle East, but they face increasing risks on the journey and a precarious status once they arrive. A substantial population of Eritreans live in Arab states, primarily in guestworker roles, including more than 100,000 in Saudi Arabia as of 2018. However, Middle Eastern countries typically are not signatories to the 1951 Refugee Convention and Eritreans are not eligible for asylum. Instead, they typically depend on work contracts for residence permits, meaning they are vulnerable to punitive Eritrean government taxation in exchange for the vital documents needed to keep their residence status. Travel through Yemen is also extremely dangerous, particularly along the Yemeni-Saudi border, where migrants face extortion and assault from traffickers and detention and abuse by armed Houthi groups. Hundreds of Ethiopian migrants and asylum seekers were also reportedly killed by Saudi border guards in 2022 and 2023.
Eritreans continue to flee the oppressive conditions that have persisted in their country for decades, but their options for safe harbor are rapidly diminishing. Ethiopia, once a primary refuge, has become increasingly hostile—detaining Eritrean asylum seekers, depriving them of basic protections, and deporting them back to a harshly punitive government. Meanwhile, Sudan’s ongoing war has turned an already precarious situation for Eritrean refugees into a full-scale crisis, forcing many to flee yet again.
Eritrea remains a repressive authoritarian state, and with the 79-year-old Isaias reportedly grooming his son for succession, conditions are unlikely to change soon. As borders in the Global North increasingly harden and neighboring countries grow more unstable and inhospitable, Eritreans’ struggle for safety is not easing.
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By Amanda Poole and Jennifer Riggan
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