EPDP Information Office
In statement released this week, the UNHCR expressed “a number of concerns as regards the methodology” used by the recent report of the Danish Immigration Service (DIS) and its confusion of sources as well as its selective use of unverified facts from usually ill-identified interlocutors. The Danish report wished to portray that the situation in Eritrea is “not as bad as reported” by the rest of the world.
The DIS report refers to have met “a UN agency” in Asmara without saying which agency, and the UNHCR wished to confirm that that reference should not implicate it.
UNHCR also regretted that the report given to DIS by its Shire office could have been useful in helping DIS reach right conclusions. Instead, the relied on “on speculative statements” of other informants regarding nationality identification of UNHCR registered refugees in Shire.
The UNHCR also expressed its frustration with the report’s failure to make ample direct quotes from its sources and in its lumping together information provided it by various informants.
The UNHCR statement added: “The (DIS) report does not include any reflections on the reliability of specific sources of information. No information is provided in the report about the regulatory framework for the media, NGOs, research institutes and other actors in Eritrea, nor does the report contain an assessment of the impact of these regulatory frameworks on the independence of certain sources and the reliability of information provided by these sources”.
Read full UNHCR Statement in this link:
