A/HRC/38/50 affected have the right to participate in decision-making at the national and community levels.14 The right to adequate housing implies that a Government should take steps that are concrete, deliberate and targeted to fulfil this right. Eritrea, as a party to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, should guarantee at least minimum essential levels of this right by, for example, ensuring that a significant number of people are not deprived of basic shelter and housing.15 The number of those rendered homeless (14,388) is significant when considering that the total population of Eritrea is 3.5 million. Additionally, should a State adopt a measure that would leave people worse off as a result — such as one that weakens the protection of the right to adequate housing — the State would need to demonstrate that it had weighed all the available options carefully. It should also show it considered the overall impact on all human rights of such a measure and that it fully used all its available resources in handling such impacts. 2. Land grabs and destroyed livelihoods 89. The commission of inquiry on human rights in Eritrea documented forcible evictions of the Afar, a pastoralist ethnic minority who depend on their traditional lands for their livelihood. According to reports reaching the Special Rapporteur, the Government continues to actively pursue a land policy that has legitimized forcible displacement and dispossession of indigenous populations and minorities, leading to arbitrary and uncompensated evictions. The Special Rapporteur was informed that forced evictions continue in particular in the area around Assab, the port city in the Southern Red Sea Region, an area traditionally belonging to or used by the Afar. 90. In its latest report of November 2017 (see S/2017/925, paras. 54–55), the Monitoring Group on Somalia and Eritrea described the further expansion of the military base of the United Arab Emirates in Assab, noting the continuing construction of a permanent infrastructure and facilities around the airport and a port facility adjacent to the airport. It also referred to the continuing presence of tanks and artillery of the United Arab Emirates on a site between the airport and the port facilities. 91. According to information received, the Afar people’s efforts to seek compensation for their dispossession of their traditional lands during the construction of the military base in Assab were stifled. When the leaders of the Afar complained about the loss of access to their traditional lands, salt mines and fishing grounds, they were warned to refrain from further complaints. To date, there has been no response to complaints filed by the Afar community with the local administration and no compensation has been awarded. Many members of the approximately 2,000 families concerned have fled to neighbouring countries. 92. Furthermore, the Special Rapporteur received accounts of displacement of the Kunama ethnic minority. The commission of inquiry reported that the Government was resettling people in areas traditionally used by ethnic minorities, a policy that appears to continue to be applied with the resettlement of other people in areas traditionally populated by the Kunama. The Special Rapporteur is concerned that as a result of a lack of the rule of law and an independent judiciary, affected communities are not able to oppose decisions on forcible evictions or access adequate compensation in a court of law. III. The plight of Eritrean asylum seekers and refugees 93. According to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), as of December 2017, close to 300,000 refugees from Eritrea were being hosted by Ethiopia and Sudan. This includes more than 112,000 Eritrean refugees in Sudan, and 164,668 Eritrean refugees in Ethiopia, with hundreds of asylum seekers continuing to cross the border monthly. 94. In 2017, the 28 European Union member States plus Norway and Switzerland recorded 706,913 asylum applications, with Eritrea figuring among the top 10 countries of origin. In total, Eritrean nationals lodged 28,049 applications for asylum — 11,000 fewer than in 2016. A slightly higher number of applications was lodged in the summer months, 14 15 14 See UN-Habitat, “The Right to Adequate Housing: Factsheet No. 21/Rev.1”, p. 3. Ibid., p. 31.