Eritrea: complaint against EU, accomplice of "forced labor"

Text by: Léonard Vincent Follow

A complaint was filed this Wednesday, by a group of Eritreans in exile, against several institutions of the European Union. At issue: EU funding, since last year, of the construction in Eritrea of ​​roads for which are knowingly employed conscripts of the very controversial compulsory military service.

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Lawyers for the Human Rights Foundation for Eritreans, based in the Netherlands, warned the European Union last year. This time, faced with the indifference of the Brussels institutions towards their arguments, they took action. According to our information, a complaint of around thirty pages was lodged this Wednesday morning with the High Court of Amsterdam. This complaint asks the court for two things: first, that it declares European funding for supported road works in Eritrea to be “  illegal  ”; second, that he urge the European Union to stop it.

In their complaint against the European Commission and its External Action Service, the lawyers Emil Jurjens and Tamilla Abdul-Alyeva obviously rely on international law, which sanctions the use of forced labor. But also on the texts of the EU itself, which has undertaken to refuse any support for possible "  human rights violations  " in its international cooperation. And this even when, in its project to support Eritrean construction sites made public in 2018, it recognized, black on white, that conscripts of the "  national service  " would be well employed on the construction sites that it finances, up to 20 million euros in 2019 and 60 million euros in 2020.

In its defense, the EU had responded by letter last year to the formal notice from the complainants. For her, on the one hand Eritrea refuses any "  condition  " prior to its cooperation. And on the other hand, it claims that its funding is not intended for the government of Asmara, but for subcontractors, in this case Eritrean construction companies responsible for carrying out the works. And it ensures that "  remuneration  " is indeed paid to employees.

The terrible employment conditions of Eritrean army conscripts

But to prove its good faith, stress the complainants, it relies on the communication of the Eritrean government. Lawyers for the Human Rights Foundation for Eritreans add that the Eritrean subcontractors are companies belonging to the Eritrean single party, the Popular Front for Democracy and Justice (FPDJ) or, quite simply, to the Ministry of defense.

However, the terrible conditions of employment of conscripts of the Eritrean army have been abundantly documented by several investigations, journalistic, university or institutions such as the International Labor Office (ILO). But also by the UN Special Rapporteur on human rights in Eritrea and, above all, the Commission of Inquiry of the UN Human Rights Council in 2015, who put them on a list of "  possible crimes against humanity  ".

The conscripts on   Eritrean " national service " are indeed subject to life, discipline and the military hierarchy. After being recruited before their last year of high school, they were sent for 18 months to the military academy of Sawa, in the desert near the Sudanese border, where they were subjected to ill-treatment, especially young girls. The refractories are forcibly recruited during giffas , these roundups organized by the army in the countryside and in the cities to capture the young people who would have escaped the compulsory appeal under the flags or who would have benefited from a permission for to desert. Officially, there is no limit to this service, keeping all Eritreans between the ages of 18 and 50 at the disposal of the military, including when appointed to civilian employment.

Random calendar: Thursday, the European Parliament must also decide on the subject. A resolution is proposed to the vote by the French deputy Michèle Rivasi (Greens), calling on the European Commission to "  postpone  " any financing of such projects, until a fact-finding mission by the Parliament can go to Eritrea. Parliamentary mission whose principle had been accepted in November, but which has not yet taken place.

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• Eritrea
• European Union