Antislavery Usable Past

Hiwot

2013 (Narrative date)

There are an estimated 451,000 people living in modern slavery in Eritrea (GSI 2018). The small country has a unique system of compulsory, open-ended military service for citizens that makes it one of the most oppressive states in the world. The government has enforced its current policy of sending all secondary school students to serve for a minimum of twelve months since 2003. While Eritrean law puts the minimum conscription age at 18, many teenagers find themselves recruited during high school at age 16 or even younger. In rural areas, where formal education is rarer, the army will visit villages to round up young girls and boys who look roughly of age, to begin their program of combat training and forced labour.

Hiwot was taken to a military training camp when she was 17 years old. She was subjected to starvation, rape and beatings for six months until her parents came looking for her and brought documentation to prove she was not yet 18.

In 2011, I was 17 years old, and I quarrelled with my family who live in Seneafe, and went to Asmara. As soon as I got off the bus in Asmara, I was caught by security people and taken to Wia military training camp. I told them that I was only 17, but they did not care.

There, I did military training. In one battalion there were 29 other children with me. I did not have any change of clothes. I was starving. They gave us one small piece of bread each and a cup of tea for breakfast and inadequate food for lunch and dinner. If we arrived late for meals, there was nothing.

The officer in charge raped me twice. He told me no one should know about it. He said if I told people, he would punish me severely.

The guards beat us without any reason. I missed my family a lot. I was terrified, depressed and desperate.

Six months later, in 2012, my parents came looking for me and they came with some documentation to show them that I was still a minor. At that time my health was seriously deteriorating, so I was allowed to go home with my parents.

Narrative provided by Human Rights Concern Eritrea

Country

Theme

Conflict

Type

Narrative

Tags

2011-2012 (Enslavement period)

military training

VOICES: Narratives by Survivors of Modern Slavery

This is the world's largest archive of modern slavery survivor narratives. Across more than a million words spoken or written by survivors of modern slavery, we can see why slavery persists in particular hotspots, analyse patterns in trafficking routes, identify vulnerabilities, understand more about the challenges survivors face in liberation, and discover new antislavery solutions. These narratives offer the chance to systematically design new antislavery strategies based on the experiences, ideas and solutions of enslaved people themselves.

The database is searchable by country, name, theme, and narrative date. Narratives can be viewed in list or map form. A short introduction provides context to each narrative. Narrative provenance appears after the main narrative text.

For ideas on how to use this database, please see our accompanying guide.

Project Lead: Zoe Trodd. Team Members: Andrea Nicholson, Lauren Eglen, Rosemary Pearce, Olivia Wright.

Project Funders: AHRC Antislavery Usable Past grant (2014-19), ESRC/AHRC PaCCS Modern Slavery: Meaning and Measurement grant (2016-19), and AHRC-GCRF Antislavery Knowledge Network grant (2017-2021).

For any queries about the collection please contact: rightslab@nottingham.ac.uk. If you wish to cite a particular narrative, please acknowledge the survivor’s name, the provenance of the narrative and cite: Voices Database, the Rights Lab, University of Nottingham.

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