A/HRC/44/23 in compliance with international standards. She stressed that refusing asylum applications and registration at the border can amount to refoulement. 72. In March 2020, the Ethiopian authorities announced the closure of the Hitsats refugee camp in the Tigray region. The camp hosts over 26,000 Eritrean refugees, including approximately 1,600 children. At the time of writing, the Administration for Refugee and Returnee Affairs has put on hold the announced closure of the Hitsats camp due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and the timeline for the closure is unclear. The Special Rapporteur is concerned that those currently settled at Hitsats may be unable to relocate to other camps due to the lack of infrastructure and services. In her letter of 29 April 2020, the Special Rapporteur urged the Ethiopian authorities to involve the refugee communities in the decision-making, to only relocate refugees on a voluntary basis and to not relocate any refugees from any camp until the COVID-19 crisis was resolved. 73. In April 2020, following the decision to temporarily close all land borders to curb the spread of COVID-19, the Administration for Refugee and Returnee Affairs suspended the registration and border screening of asylum seekers. By early April, over 400 Eritrean new arrivals were under a 14-day quarantine at the Endabaguna reception centre. 74. By the end of February 2020, the Sudan was hosting over 122,000 Eritrean refugees and asylum seekers, the majority in camps in Kassala and Gedaref States in the eastern part of the country.34 At the end of 2019, the majority of the new arrivals to those camps were from Eritrea, and this trend is expected to continue in 2020. High numbers of unaccompanied and separated children are among these refugees, although some children opt to move onwards and seek livelihood opportunities elsewhere. 75. The Special Rapporteur notes that Eritrean asylum seekers transiting through Ethiopia, the Sudan and beyond are often forced to rely on migrant-smuggling networks, which exposes them to violence and exploitation. In particular, unaccompanied and separated children travelling along these routes face distinct protection risks, including abuse, sexual exploitation and other forms of gender-based violence, child labour, kidnapping and trafficking in persons. 76. In June 2019, some 1,300 Somali refugees arrived in Ethiopia after the Eritrean authorities closed Umkulu refugee camp, near Massawa. This was the country’s only refugee camp and was hosting some 2,100 Somali refugees, most of whom have now left. 77. The Special Rapporteur expresses deep concern for the situation of Eritrean migrants and refugees caught up in the ongoing conflict in Libya. Several thousand Eritrean migrants and refugees are reported to be living in urban areas in Libya, although the actual numbers are estimated to be much higher. Many are held in appalling conditions in warehouses and detention centres.35 The Special Rapporteur has received harrowing accounts of Eritreans who were kidnapped by traffickers and armed elements in Libya and tortured, mistreated and sold to other groups. The Special Rapporteur notes that, in captivity, women, girls and boys are particularly vulnerable to rape, sexual slavery and other forms of gender-based violence by armed elements. The extortion for ransom of Eritrean migrants and refugees in Libya continues to operate through a vast system of money transfers extending across several countries. In some instances, family members living overseas are unable to free their relatives despite making repeated ransom payments. 78. Amid the worsening situation in Libya, on 30 January 2020, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) suspended its operational work at the gathering and departure facility, which houses migrants and refugees in Tripoli, and started moving dozens of refugees to safer facilities. In September 2019, the Government of Rwanda, UNHCR and the African Union signed a memorandum of understanding to evacuate refugees out of Libya to Rwanda on a voluntary basis. 34 35 Large numbers of Eritreans have also settled in and around Khartoum. For example, in late 2019, the Dahr-el-Jebel detention centre, south-west of Tripoli, was housing some 500 people, most from Eritrea and Somalia. In 2019, some detention centres housing migrants and refugees were hit by airstrikes and shelling. See, for example, United Nations Support Mission in Libya and OHCHR, “The airstrikes on the Daman building complex, including the Tajoura Detention Centre, 2 July 2019”. 15