Eritrea: National Service - slavery by another name
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Published by Martin Plaut
This briefing aims to highlight the Indefinite National Service as a core issue of human rights violation in Eritrea where conscripts are recruited forcefully and kept indefinitely against their will often working in construction and agricultural projects under slave like conditions.
This briefing aims to highlight the Indefinite National Service as a core issue of human rights violation in Eritrea where conscripts are recruited forcefully and kept indefinitely against their will often working in construction and agricultural projects under slave like conditions.
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Briefing May 2 14
NATIONAL SERVICE IN ERITREA SLAVERY BY ANOTHER NAME
This briefing aims to highlight the Indefinite National Service as a core issue of human rights violation where conscripts are recruited forcefully and kept indefinitely against their will often working in construction and agricultural projects under slave like conditions.
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Contents
1. Background: Human Rights Violations in Eritrea ............................................................................ 2 2. Introduction: Indefinite National Service Must Stop ...................................................................... 3 3.
............................................................................................... 4 4.1 Impact on recruits ................................................................................................................... 5 4.2 Implications for Eritrea ........................................................................................................... 7 5 Conclusion ....................................................................................................................................... 8 6 Recommendations .......................................................................................................................... 9
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Briefing from the Stop National Service Slavery in Eritrea Campaign
1.
Background: Human Rights Violations in Eritrea
Since the mid-2000s nearly all reports on Eritrea have consistently reported that human rights conditions have deteriorated drastically. Nearly all basic human rights are violated and the indefinite military service, torture, arbitrary detention have made it impossible for many Eritreans to remain in their country. Thousands of Eritreans flee the country each month, often taking unimaginable risks posed both by government policies as well as unscrupulous smugglers and traffickers capitalising from the atrocities in Eritrea. With reputations only paralleled by North
Korea, today’s
Eritrea is a country with no constitution, no functioning legal system, no independent press or political system. No elections are held, dissent of any magnitude is not tolerated and power is concentrated in the hands of the president and his few enablers. Those that are forced to leave the country often do so through increasingly dangerous routes. In mid-2012, the UN Monitoring Group on Somalia and Eritrea
concluded that “Bedouin
traffickers...routinely hold their passengers captive and demand exorbitant ransoms from their families for their release
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typically between $30,000 and $50,000. If ransom is not paid, hostages may find themselves brutally
tortured or killed.” The Monitoring Group
included five testimonies of Eritreans. In October 2013, more than 360 Eritrean refugees drowned when a boat bringing them to Europe capsized near Lampedusa, Italy. According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), over 305,000 Eritreans (more than 5 percent of the population) have fled during the past decade. Majority of those who leave Eritrea and hence a great majority of those who become victims of trafficking and dangerous exits are young people often fleeing the indefinite national service In its resolution 20/20, the UN Human Rights Council expressed deep concern at the ongoing reports of grave violations of human rights in Eritrea, and decided to appoint a special rapporteur. The Council requested the Special Rapporteur to submit a report at its twenty-third session. It also called upon the Government of Eritrea to cooperate for the fulfilment of the mandate. However despite repeated requests, Eritrea denied the United Nation special rapporteur on Eritrea, Sheila Keetharuth, a visa.
