Summary of Question and Answer Session
 April 12 Town Hall Meeting
U.S. Embassy Asmara

Q.  Is there bird flu currently in Eritrea?

Ans.  No reports of Avian Influenza have been made in Eritrea; however, it has been reported in nearby countries.

Q.  Are the various demands and restrictions applied by the Eritrean government affecting only U.S. diplomats or all resident diplomatic missions?  How do the restrictions affect Embassy operations and what is the official U.S. response?

Ans.  In 2006, the Government of the State of Eritrea placed travel restrictions on all foreigners in Eritrea, to include diplomats at all diplomatic missions.  Travel outside of Asmara requires that all foreigners apply for a permit to a certain destination ten days in advance.  Often U.S. Embassy personnel are denied permission to travel within the country even with the ten-day application.   Although other diplomatic missions are also denied permission in some cases, some of those missions have been allowed to travel more readily and to a wider range of destinations than officials of the U.S. Embassy.  The inability of the U.S. Embassy to travel unimpeded has severely diminished the Embassy’s ability to respond quickly in providing emergency services to U.S. citizens outside of Asmara.   U.S. citizens need to keep this in mind when planning travel.  We have also faced serious problems in obtaining visas for U.S. government support personnel seeking to travel to Eritrea to assist the Embassy in various functions. 

In February, the U.S. Embassy had to take the major step of suspending public services, including visa issuance due to our inability to bring in diplomatic supplies and material, such as consular documents, necessary for provision of public services.  This situation is the result of a disagreement with the Government of the State of Eritrea over the protections to be given to diplomatic pouches.  We continue to assert that the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations clearly prohibits the opening of or interference with diplomatic pouches.  The Government of Eritrea, however, refuses to allow our pouches to enter Eritrea without inspection; a provision we cannot accept.  We believe that the obligations of all host governments to support the operations of diplomatic missions and to respect the integrity of the diplomatic pouch are clearly laid out in the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, Articles 25 and 27.   The U.S. Embassy continues to make efforts to work with the Government of the State of Eritrea to resolve this issue.  In the meanwhile, however, the Embassy’s inability to bring in our diplomatic supplies will continue to prevent us from being able to provide full services to the public.

Overall, while restrictions imposed by the Government of the State of Eritrea affect all diplomatic missions and foreigners in Eritrea, their application appear to have been disproportionately  directed at the U.S. Embassy.  In response, the U.S. Government has attempted unsuccessfully to address each of these problem areas with the Government of the State of Eritrea.  Given our inability to have the restrictions lifted to date, the U.S. government has imposed some reciprocal restrictions on the Eritrean diplomatic missions in the U.S., including limiting the movement of Eritrean diplomats within U.S. territory.  We find no advantage to either of our countries by perpetuating these restrictions and hope, in the future, that the lifting of the operational restrictions in Asmara will allow both of our countries’ diplomatic missions to once again operate normally, and work freely to represent the best interests of our citizens.
           
Q.  Will the Government of Eritrea renew visas to allow local working Americans to re-enter the country to work upon return from vacation?

Ans.  That is a question for the Government of Eritrea.  We can only note at this point that we are aware of recent cases where private U.S. citizens have faced difficulties in obtaining Eritrean visas.

Q.  Public opinion on the border war is that the U.S favors Ethiopia.  Why does the U.S. not do more to force Eritrea to follow the agreement?

Ans.  The U.S. Embassy is aware that much of the public in Eritrea believe that the U.S. favors Ethiopia in the Eritrean-Ethiopian border dispute.  It does not. The Government of the State of Eritrea’s monopoly on media outlets in the country, however, makes it difficult for the Eritrean people to receive information other than that disseminated by the government, including information about the U.S. government’s position and actions on the border dispute.  The U.S. Government has fully supported, and will continue to support, the efforts and rulings of the independent Eritrea-Ethiopia Border Commission (EEBC).  The EEBC’s decision is final, binding, and the U.S. government seeks its prompt implementation and does not support any changes in the boundary demarcation, despite assertions to the contrary by the Government of Eritrea.  In early 2006, U.S. Department of State Assistant Secretary for African Affairs, Jendayi Frazer, announced that the U.S. would spearhead an initiative for the international community to assist Eritrea and Ethiopia in moving forward with implementation of the EEBC border ruling and in addressing jointly the impact of demarcation on the affected populations.  The Assistant Secretary’s initiative presented a real opportunity for peace.  Unfortunately, both parties refused to engage meaningfully in discussions with the EEBC and the Government of Eritrea, insisting that the initiative was a ploy to somehow undercut the EEBC ruling, was unwilling to work with us constructively on the effort.  The U.S. strongly calls for both sides to renew their commitment to working toward demarcation of the border and to a normalization of relations.  While the U.S. will be ready at any juncture to help facilitate efforts by the Ethiopian and Eritrean governments to resolve their issues, any progress on the border can happen only if both sides sincerely desire resolution.  
           
Q.  How do you know when an immigrant visa petition has been approved by U.S. Customs and Immigration Service (USCIS)?  What are the procedures in transferring a petition?  It is not economically feasible for a family of 5 or more to transfer their cases to another country, so why won’t the U.S. Embassy in Asmara reopen?

Ans.  Petitioners may contact the approving office of USCIS or go to www.uscis.gov to check the status of their petition.   If the petition is already in the consular office at the U.S. Embassy in Asmara, the petitioner may make a request to this Embassy’s consular section to have the case transferred.  The petitioner may also request directly with our Embassies in Cairo and Nairobi to have their cases transferred.  Embassy Cairo’s e-mail address for the consular section is consularcairoiv@state.gov.  Embassy Nairobi’s e-mail address for the consular section is consularnairob@state.gov.  However, it is at the discretion of the consular chief in each U.S. Embassy whether to accept visa cases.  Should Cairo or Nairobi agree to accept a case, the request to have the case transferred will be forwarded by the Embassy Asmara Consular Section to the accepting Embassy’s Consular Section.  The beneficiary can still be in Eritrea when the petition is being filed at another Embassy, but he/she must be personally present at the adjudicating consular office at the time of the interview.

The U.S. Embassy would like to resume full immigrant and tourist visa processing services at the mission as soon as possible.  However, our ability to reopen will remain contingent on the cooperation of the Government of the State of Eritrea to allow the necessary documents and supplies to be shipped to the Embassy by diplomatic pouch unimpeded.  To date, the Embassy has received no assurances by the Government of the State of Eritrea that they intend to abide by their treaty obligations on the treatment of the diplomatic pouch.