Screen shot of a video from Africa News showing exiles protesting following the UN's report on human rights in Eritrea. In 2014, Eritreans ranked as the second largest group of immigrants arriving in Europe. They also ranked third in terms of the number of migrants arriving on the continent via the Mediterranean in the summer of 2015, while of those who perish attempting that crossing, Eritreans account for more than half. On June 8, the UN Commission of Inquiry on Human Rights in Eritrea published its latest report exposing the totalitarian nature of the Eritrean government and the scope of the crimes against humanity that have been systematically perpetrated in the country over the past 25 years. In a press release presenting the report, the Commission's president, Mike Smith stated: Eritrea is an authoritarian State. There is no independent judiciary, no national assembly and there are no other democratic institutions in Eritrea. This has created a governance and rule of law vacuum, resulting in a climate of impunity for crimes against humanity to be perpetrated over a quarter of a century. These crimes are still occurring today There is no genuine prospect of the Eritrean judicial system holding perpetrators to account in a fair and transparent manner. Map provided by the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In red: formal advisory against travel; in orange: advisory against unnecessary travel; yellow: high degree of caution advised; green: normal precautions advised). National service has transformed Eritrea into a collective prison, and those who attempt to flee the country risk being shot. Source diplomatie.gouv.fr- Public Domain The report uses language that is unusually blunt for the UN in exposing human rights abuses: The crimes also include imprisonment, enforced disappearances, persecution, murder and other inhumane acts have been committed as part of a campaign to instill fear in, deter opposition from and ultimately to control the Eritrean civilian population since Eritrean authorities took control of Eritrean territory in 1991. The following report from France 24 English seeks to explain why so many Eritreans risk death to escape the country: Kubrom Dafla Hosabay, former head of the Eritrean Tax Administration, who fled the regime in 2009, explains: People are escaping because they are stifled. They are not free anymore… you know… without the freedom to work, the freedom to have a family, the freedom to travel, the freedom to go to education, what life do you have? The young people see that they cannot do any activity as long as that national service obligation exists. It's endless. There's no legal way of going out of the national service. In the following video, refugee coordinator for Amnesty International, Denise Graf, explains the living conditions in Eritrea, the uncertainty that families face, and the challenges in obtaining refugee status in Switzerland: En 2014, ils ont été près de 7000 à demander l’asile en Suisse. Les Erythréens forment aujourd’hui le plus gros contingent de réfugiés en Suisse. A l’échelle européenne on totalise 46000 Erythréens demandeurs d’asile. D’après les chiffres de l’ONU, les départs se comptent en centaines de milliers. Une fuite massive qu’il est difficile d’évaluer, tant l’Erythrée est un pays mal connu. C’est un pays jeune qui a acquis son indépendance en 1993 après trente ans de guerre avec son grand voisin, l’Ethiopie. Mais le pouvoir en place depuis l’indépendance est considéré comme l’un des plus répressifs du monde. Les arrestations arbitraires se multiplient et les jeunes sont astreints à un service militaire parfois interminable. In 2014, nearly 7,000 Eritreans requested asylum in Switzerland, and today form the largest group of refugees in the country. Throughout Europe, this number reaches 46,000. According to the UN's statistics, the number of Eritreans having fled the country is in the hundreds of thousands but is difficult to evaluate as the country is not well known. It is a young country that gained its independence in 1993, after thirty years of war with its larger neighbor, Ethiopia. The current regime is considered to be one of the most oppressive in the world. Illegal arrests are on the rise and young people are forced into military service which is sometimes endless. In turn, Amnesty International also explained the burden of the national service system on the population and the plight of children in the country: Mandatory National Service continued to be extended indefinitely in a system that amounts to forced labour. A significant proportion of the population was in open-ended conscription, in some cases for up to 20 years.