Early day motion slams mining companies for using forced labour in collusion with repressive Eritrean government and adding to the country’s human exodus

Western mining companies operating in Eritrea are reducing workers to “abject slavery” at their mines and worsening a human exodus that is driving more than 5,000 people out of the country every month, a group of British MPs has said.

An early day motion, signed by 41 MPs, blasts Eritrea’s poor human rights record, condemning “arbitrary arrest and detention and compulsory military service” carried out by the government.

The bill “notes with concern the collusion between the government of Eritrea and the international mining companies from the UK, Canada and Australia, which is using the forced labour of Eritreans for work in extractive industries in conditions which have been described as abject slavery”.

MPs called on the Eritrean government to allow Sheila Keetharuth, the UN’s special rapporteur on human rights in Eritrea, to travel to the country and assess claims of widespread rights violations. Keetharuth has not been allowed to enter the secretive country since her appointment in 2012.

The bill’s primary sponsor, Labour MP Jeremy Corbyn, said: “The mining companies that so happily work with the Eritrean government need to look at themselves – as do other governments who are well aware of the situation there – and insist on the special rapporteur visit as the beginning of the international awareness of the level of human rights abuses.”

Eritrea’s harsh national service programme, which requires all citizens over the age of 18 to enlist in the military or work for state-run companies, was linked to the exploitation of workers in the country’s mining sector in a 2013 report by Human Rights Watch (HRW).

In response to HRW’s report, the Canadian mining company Nevsun Resources commissioned an independent assessment (pdf) of working conditions at its Bisha mine, in which the Eritrean government holds a 40% stake (pdf). “Since 2009, Bisha Mining Share Company has implemented screening procedures and dialogue with the management of its main suppliers, contractors and subcontractors to implement the prohibition against using national service programme workers at the Bisha mine,” the report said.

Last month, three Eritrean refugees filed a lawsuit against Nevsun in a Canadian court over allegations that they were forced to work at the company’s Bisha mine against their will.

More than 300,000 Eritreans have fled the country so far, according to the UN refugee agency, UNHCR. Many migrants embark on a dangerous journey through Sudan, Egypt and Libya, risking kidnapping and torture, before trying to cross the Mediterranean and settle in Europe.

The Liberal Democrat MP Sarah Teather, who sponsored the motion, said: “The situation for Eritreans is appalling, with ongoing human rights abuses forcing thousands to leave every month. I’m particularly worried about the extremely vulnerable position that those fleeing find themselves in.”

“[Eritrean migrants] are disproportionately represented in the boats crossing the Mediterranean, with almost half of all arrivals via this route in 2014 from Eritrea and Syria. Many fall into the hands of human traffickers on the way. Tragically, many others have drowned. That’s why the Eritrean government must honour its international human rights obligations – allowing a visit from the UN would be a good first step.”

December 18, 2014 (Beijing) – China will host the 41st IAAF World Cross Country Championships for the first time in its history in the coming year. The world’s leading cross-country competition will take place in Guiyang, capital of Guizhou province in Southwest China.

According to the Chinese organization committee, the championship will start on March 28, 2015, with four categories, namely 6 kilometers for young women, 8 kilometers for adult women, 8 kilometers for young men and 12 kilometers for adult men.

Although, the IAAF announced that it would be premature to speculate on the numbers of the runners and member federations to take part in Guiyang, Chinese media reports state that the event could attract more than 1,000 participants, coaches and media from over 50 countries and regions.

Among the elite runners, striving to defend previous titles and return to former glory, is Eritrea’s Zersenay Tadese, Kenya’s Japhet Korir and Emily Chebet.

The IAAF said that Eritrea’s Zersenay Tadese and the Netherlands’ Lornah Kiplagat, both in 2007, were the last individual senior winners from anywhere other than the two East African countries while Tanzania’s Andrew Sambu and Finland’s Annemari Sandell, who triumphed in 1991 and 1995 respectively, were the last junior winners to fracture the duopoly.

The first six individuals and teams in the senior races will be given a price money while a price tag of US$30,000 awaits the first man and woman of the race. US$20,000 will be spread among the winning teams.

ምስ የሕዋተይ ኮይነ ብምሕረትኣብ ሚኪኤል

(Brussels, December 17, 2014) – A Danish immigration report on Eritrea that suggests changing refugee policy for Eritrean asylum seekers is deeply flawed. Denmark and other European governments should await the outcome of the United Nations Commission of Inquiry on Eritrea, established in June 2014, before considering any major policy changes concerning Eritrea.

The Danish report suggests that the Eritrean government may be carrying out reforms that would allow Eritrean asylum seekers fleeing Eritrea’s abusive, indefinite national conscription program to be safely returned to the country. The number of Eritrean asylum seekers and migrants fleeing Eritrea and arriving in Europe has surged in recent years. A very high rate of Eritrean asylum seekers are granted refugee status or some other protected status in Europe, according to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)’s statistics.

  “The Danish report seems more like a political effort to stem migration than an honest assessment of Eritrea’s human rights situation,” said Leslie Lefkow, deputy Africa director. “Instead of speculating on potential Eritrean government reforms, host governments should wait to see whether pledges actually translate into changes on the ground.”

According to UNHCR, the number of Eritreans arriving in Europe tripled in 2014 to nearly 37,000 in the first 10 months.

Eritrea is isolated politically, both regionally and internationally, and is under UN sanctions due to its alleged past support for the militant group Al-Shabaab in Somalia. Some observers suggest that interest by European governments in stemming migration from the Horn of Africa is the main impetus for a variety of changes in policy toward the country, including the assessment of refugee policy.

Eritrea was among the African governments that met with European Union member states in Rome on November 28 as part of the EU-Horn of Africa Migration Route Initiative (also known as the Khartoum Process). Its stated aim is to prevent human trafficking and smuggling of migrants from the Horn to Europe.

The November report from the Danish Immigration Service, largely based on interviews with anonymous diplomatic and other sources in Eritrea, contains contradictory and speculative statements about Eritrea’s human rights situation. The sources also often qualify their statements, noting that there is no independent access to detention centers, that the fate of people returned to Eritrea is unclear, and that government reforms of the national service conscription are rumored, but not confirmed. There is no indication that the authors of the report interviewed victims or witnesses of human rights violations in Eritrea, and a prominent Eritrean academic consulted for the report has publicly criticized it.

Eritrea is one of the most closed countries in Africa, with no independent media, local nongovernmental organizations, or political opposition. The degree of government repression makes independent fact-finding in the country especially hard, including the difficulty of protecting interviewees from government reprisals. Eritrean refugee accounts are a primary source of information for international human rights investigators for this reason.

Eritrea’s dire human rights situation has been widely reported, including by a UN special rapporteur on Eritrea who has published several authoritative and damning reports on conditions. Human Rights Watch has not found any significant improvement in the human rights conditions in the past year.

The most common patterns of abuse in Eritrea include indefinite military conscription; forced labor during conscription; arbitrary arrests, detentions, and disappearances; torture and other degrading treatment in detention; restrictions on freedoms of expression, conscience, and movement; and repression of religious freedom. Eritrea’s policy of national service or military conscription is a significant reason for many young Eritreans to flee the country. By law each Eritrean is compelled to serve 18 months in national service starting at age 18, but in practice conscripts serve indefinitely; many for over a decade.

In June, the UN Human Rights Council condemned Eritrea’s “continued widespread and systematic violations of human rights and fundamental freedoms,” and adopted a resolution establishing a commission of inquiry to investigate abuses in Eritrea.

European governments should not make major policy changes toward Eritrea until they see the commission of inquiry findings, Human Rights Watch said.

“If the Eritrean government is really ready to carry out human rights reforms, it needs to give the UN commission of inquiry access so that it can make an objective assessment of progress,” Lefkow said. “The Eritrean government’s willingness to cooperate with the commission of inquiry will be the first test of whether it is ready to change course.”

More reporting on: http://www.hrw.org/news/2014/12/17/denmark-eritrea-immigration-report-deeply-flawed