Christians and Muslims are among the worst treated in Eritrean prisons, according to a doctor working in the hospital that looks after them.
At a highly emotive and charged meeting yesterday hosted by Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW), Human Rights Concern Eritrea and Lord Alton, a clinician who has worked in Eritrean prison hospitals shared the horrors he had witnessed.
The daughter of one of his patients, who had not heard from her father for over a decade, also shared the tragic story of his imprisonment.
In its report the Commision of Inquiry on Human Rights in Eritrea (COIE) found that "systematic, widespread and gross human rights violations have been and are being committed in Eritrea under the authority of the Government. Some of these violations may constitute crimes against humanity," including violations in the area of extrajudicial killings, torture (including sexual torture), forced labour and national service.
The clinician, who could not be named for security reasons, had worked in Halibut hospital, the only hospital in Eritrea working with prisoners, since 2009. He worked on Ward P, the prisoners' ward, which is kept separate to ensure they have no contact with the outside world.
The clinician said that many had been imprisoned because of their religious beliefs.
"Some of them were arrested because of religous affiliations, accused of having any type of religoius affiliation to the West, when the person has no idea what the 'west religion' means by itself, because there is no 'west' religion. Christianity is considered the religion of the West and Islam is considered the bigotry of the Middle East. You cannot be a Christian, you cannot be a Muslim, you have to be somewhere in the middle if you are not going to be accused."
The majority of the prisoners "did not know why they had been arrested, they were taken from their home, work and the streets and they do not know why they are imprisoned or tortured." They were often left nameless, referred to with a code.
The degrees of torture in the hospital are shocking and have been described as "crimes against humanity."
"[The guards] would put black cloth over the prisoners' faces and torture them for two or three hours," according to the clinician.
He felt helpless. "There was nothing I could do except listen to their stories and pretend as if I didn't hear them."
The most brutally treated prisoners were the political prisoners, who were not allowed to spend the night in the hospital, however serious their injuries. They were kept in isolation in the hospital, only the doctor was able to enter the isolation room.
"They were not supposed to see the light, they were not supposed to go out of their room, they were not supposed to know anything about the outside world, nothing about their parents or relatives. None of them know why they were arrested, none of them know why they are there."
Stress disorder, suicidal thoughts and insomnia are common among prisoners, who are often victims of rape, sexual abuse and torture.
The prison did not have separate wards for men and women, rather they "have to share the same bathroom, of which the door does not work."
"Sometimes I would be forced to stay overnight because I could not trust the security guards. I don't think I could find words to explain the type of torture they face in the prisons."
Patients were denied medical attention if they were disobedient in any way. If they told a doctor that their injuries were due to torture they would be taken straight back to their prison cell, out of hospital, even if they were due to have surgery.
Many of the cells are underground with people being held in "metal containers". The clinician said the prisoners were allowed sunlight between 5 and 6pm on a daily basis, but were otherwise detained underground.
He spoke of the desperate situations driving many women in particular to attempt suicide through cutting themselves and electric shocks. If they were caught, they were punished by having their hair shaved. The prison guards say that if someone attempts suicide, they must be hiding something, and so the mark of a shaved head rouses further suspicion.
"I have seen many types of tortures done to fellow human beings that I didn't think would be possible from one human to another, but they have done it. I'm really sorry I don't have a good story," the clinician said.
One of the patients he has treated is the father of a woman present at the meeting, who cannot be named for security reasons.
She last saw her father in 2002 whilst studying at university in France, before he returned to Eritrea and was arrested out of the blue.
"My father was very outspoken, he was not political," she said. "He said what was on his mind and did not fear repercussions. For some reason because he didnt aspire to any political office, he probably thought that shielded him from any kind of abuse from the government.
But in 2002 despite many family and friends asking him to stay in Europe, her father was determined to return to Eritrea. The last time she saw him was in July that year.
She described how at first she was "naive" and thought that if she worked for the ministry of foreign affairs, she would be able to secure his release.
"I chased up every Eritrean ambassador from the former ambassador here, South Africa, France, nothing works. I have gone to the Hague, to the UN... I have tried every legal means I can."
No one has the right to call or speak to her father, and the last time she heard him was in 2006 when he was leaving the hospital, "until half an hour ago when I met this doctor who has seen my father."
"It is very difficult for Eritreans to fight the system," she said. "It doesn't matter if I have a lawyer or ten lawyers.
"Even Europe deals with its difficult children like Greece and so forth by giving money in return for reform. It breaks my heart to see Europe giving money to Eritrean governemet without anything in return; that is just a shame."
As a result of widespread human rights violations, the "general climate of impunity" and the government's "pervasive control systems", Eritrea has become the largest refugee-producing country in the world per-capita, generating more refugees than any other nation apart from Syria.
Also at the meeting, a story was shared of a daughter of two imprisoned Eritrean activists, who fled the country not once, but twice, despite fear of the government's "shoot to kill" border policy and several years imprisoned and on labour camps in between the two attempts.
CSW remains concerned that despite the large scale human rights violations, some European countries are choosing to view Eritreans as economic migrants.
The reality is that Eritrean 30,000 refugees did not cross the Mediterranean sea between January and October 2014 because they were unemployed. The reality is far darker.