UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Eritreans risk being shot to death by their own troops as they flee their homeland to start a treacherous journey seeking European asylum that killed hundreds of desperate refugees this month when their boats sank, a U.N. envoy said on Thursday.
Sheila Keetharuth, U.N. special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Eritrea, said Eritreans are subject to some of the most serious rights abuses, including extrajudicial killings, incommunicado detention, arbitrary arrest, torture, inhumane prison conditions and indefinite national service.