A/HRC/26/45 24. Guilt by association continued, with parents asked to pay substantial fines of 50,000 Nafka (ERN) for each family member who has left the country, although the parents often have no knowledge of their children’s plans. In the high-profile case, in which the former Minister of Information failed to return to Eritrea after a trip abroad, his elderly father, his 15-year-old daughter and his brother were arrested and detained; they remain in detention to date. III. Refugee situation 25. While there are numerous human rights violations that incite Eritreans to leave the country, the indefinite national service and arbitrary arrests and detention, or fear thereof, are the top push factors for flight. The fear and experience of a lengthy national service incite many Eritreans, particularly young people, but also older people, to leave the country in large numbers, a process that has started to deplete entire villages, and which has the potential of negatively impacting the country’s social landscape. 26. An exponentially high number of people leave Eritrea, despite the life-threatening risks faced while attempting to flee the country and during flight. As at mid-2013, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) estimated that the total population of concern originating from Eritrea was 313,375 people, including 292,969 refugees or people in refugee-like situations and 20,336 asylum seekers.4 UNHCR estimates currently put the number of Eritreans fleeing their country each month at an average 2,000 people. Those statistics place Eritrea as the 10th highest refugee-producing country in the world; they include a high number of unaccompanied minors, whose plight was raised by the Special Rapporteur in her first report.5 27. Notwithstanding the non-refoulement principle enshrined in the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees (art. 33), and specific reference to prohibition of return (“refouler”) in the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (art. 3), there have been reports of asylum seekers and refugees being returned to Eritrea “voluntarily”. The language in article 3, paragraph 1, of the Convention against Torture is compelling: “No State shall expel, return (“refouler”) or extradite a person to another State where there are substantial grounds for believing that he would be in danger of being subjected to torture”. The competent authorities must take into account, “where applicable, the existence in the State concerned of a consistent pattern of gross, flagrant or mass violations of human rights.” Unsuccessful asylum seekers and other returnees, including national service evaders and deserters, face torture, detention and disappearance in Eritrea (see section IV.A below). It is therefore of paramount importance to end bilateral and other arrangements between Eritrea and third countries that jeopardize the lives of those seeking asylum. IV. National service 28. In 1995, National Service Proclamation No. 82/1995 formalized national service in Eritrea. National service was viewed as a means of giving effect to the “historical responsibility” that “present and future generations” shoulder to preserve “a free and sovereign Eritrea as a legacy of thousands of martyrs” (preface). It took but a short time for national service to veer from its “noble objective” as a nation-building programme to 4 5 6 See UNHCR – Eritrea. Available from http://www.unhcr.org/cgi-bin/texis/vtx/page?page=49e4838e6. A/HRC/23/53, para. 72.