Finnish Official Arrives in Asmara

Pekka Haavisto, Finland's Minister for International Development

Finnish Official Arrives in Asmara

Pekka Haavisto, Finland's Minister for International Development arrived in Asmara today for a two-day visit.

During his visit, the minister is expected to hold talks with senior Eritrean officials, including President Isaias Afwerki and Foreign Minister Osman Saleh Mohammed.

Finland says it seeks to get acquainted with the humanitarian situation in Eritrea and would like the country to increase its international interaction and enhance its dialogue with the EU.

Editor's Opinion:

Even though more people flee Ethiopia than any country in Africa — both in numbers and per capita— this Finnish official is being sent to Eritrea to discuss, among other things, economic migration that impacts every developing country. But since economic migration of Eritreans is what the State Department wants the media to focus on, there is this negative and false perception that it's only happening in Eritrea, which i'm sure this official has bought into to some degree.

Like every developing country, people in Eritrea who do leave the country leave for mostly economic reasons. I say this with confidence because the vast majority of Eritrean migrants tend to head for developed countries in Europe, North America, or Israel. Even those who have been living in the Sudan, Libya and Kenya for decades are packing their bags and falsely claiming they are fleeing from persecution in Eritrea to get a quick ticket to the West. It's not just Eritreans who are gaming the system, either. Numerous Ethiopians and other African migrants are claiming they are Eritreans to get into the West, too. So what you end up with is an exaggerated statistic about the number of Eritreans who are actually leaving their country and this inflated figure is then used to demonize the country and its leadership. In reality, it's their politically motivated policies in Western countries to accept Eritrean economic migrants over other Africans that's inducing them to leave in the first place.

Pekka Haavisto in Asmara with the honorable South African Ambassador to Eritrea, Iqbal Jhazbhay - Januaray 9, 2014

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