Thread by @astroehlein

New report - thread:

This country uses secondary schools to channel students into indefinite government service.

Students and teachers are subjected to forced labor and physical abuse.

Every year, thousands of children & young adults are forced into military training even before they finish their schooling.

Instead of developing a pool of committed, well-trained, career secondary school teachers, the government conscripts teachers, also for indefinite service, giving them no choice about whether, what, or where to teach.

Yes, that's _indefinite_ military service in abusive conditions: you don't know how long the horror will last.

Some secondary school students intentionally fail classes to stay in the lower grades. Others drop out, but live in fear of government roundups in which youth without student cards risk being sent directly into military training and service.

Each year, the government sends all final year secondary school students to this isolated military camp.

For most students & teachers, ultimately one of the only options available to evade the system is to flee the country. If they're caught, they face lengthy detention and torture.

Human Rights Watch interviewed 73 high school students and teachers who managed to escape this hell

This hell is called Eritrea.

Read the full report: “‘They Are Making Us into Slaves, Not Educating Us’: How Indefinite Conscription Restricts Young People’s Rights, Access to Education in Eritrea.”

bit.ly/2YUF67R

Or read @akawire's short interview with our researcher @LaetitiaBader about Eritrea’s conscription program and the huge risks teachers and students take to escape from it.

hrw.org/news/2019/08/0…

Last word: Eritreans deserve to be free. They deserve their basic rights promoted and protected. They deserve the right to choose their own future, to have a basic standard of living and a family life, and the right to not be arbitrarily detained.

They don't deserve this hell.