eritrea: national service - slavery by another name

8/12/2019 Eritrea: National Service - slavery by another name

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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 violationwhere 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 ............................................................................ 22. Introduction: Indefinite National Service Must Stop ...................................................................... 3

3. Eritreas National Service: Indefinite Conscription and Forced Labour .......................................... 4

4. Impacts of Eritreas national service ............................................................................................... 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 ServiceSlavery in Eritrea Campaign

1. Background: Human Rights Violations in Eritrea

Since the mid-2000s nearly all reports on Eritrea have consistently reported thathuman rights conditions have deteriorated drastically. Nearly all basic human rightsare violated and the indefinite military service, torture, arbitrary detention have madeit impossible for many Eritreans to remain in their country. Thousands of Eritreansflee the country each month, often taking unimaginable risks posed both by

government policies as well as unscrupulous smugglers and traffickers capitalisingfrom the atrocities in Eritrea.

With reputations only paralleled by North Korea, todays Eritrea is a country with noconstitution, no functioning legal system, no independent press or political system.No elections are held, dissent of any magnitude is not tolerated and power isconcentrated in the hands of the president and his few enablers.

Those that are forced to leave the country often do so through increasinglydangerous routes. In mid-2012, the UN Monitoring Group on Somalia and Eritreaconcluded that Bedouin traffickers...routinely hold their passengers captive anddemand exorbitant ransoms from their families for their release typically between$30,000 and $50,000. If ransom is not paid, hostages may find themselves brutallytortured or killed. The Monitoring Group included five testimonies of Eritreans.

In October 2013, more than 360 Eritrean refugees drowned when a boat bringingthem to Europe capsized near Lampedusa, Italy.

According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), over305,000 Eritreans (more than 5 percent of the population) have fled during the pastdecade. Majority of those who leave Eritrea and hence a great majority of those whobecome victims of trafficking and dangerous exits are young people often fleeing theindefinite national service

In its resolution 20/20, the UN Human Rights Council expressed deep concern at theongoing reports of grave violations of human rights in Eritrea, and decided to appointa special rapporteur. The Council requested the Special Rapporteur to submit areport at its twenty-third session. It also called upon the Government of Eritrea tocooperate for the fulfilment of the mandate. However despite repeated requests,Eritrea denied the United Nation special rapporteur on Eritrea, Sheila Keetharuth, avisa.


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In a 2013, in a report based on refugee interviews, she concluded that in Eritreabasic tenets of the rule of law are not respected. Fol lowing her report, the Councilstrongly condemned Eritreas continued widespread and systematic violations ofhuman rights and fundamental freedoms.

In February 2014 Eritrea s second Universal Periodic Review on human rights wasadopted and discussions highlighted the level of concern on a wide range of issues,including the indefinite national service that is causing the unprecedented levels offorced migration of Eritreans.

2. Introduction: Indefinite National Service Must Stopwhen I realised there was no end to it I made a decision to leave and it took two

years to escape (Robel served from 1997-2004, now lives in Italy)

This briefing aims to highlight the Indefinite National Service as a core issue ofhuman rights violation where conscripts are recruited forcefully and kept indefinitelyagainst their will often working in construction and agricultural projects under slavelike conditions.

The briefing is based on the experiences of many former recruits who fled thecountry after serving periods ranging from 2 to almost 20 years in the nationalservice; many have left friends and family members who are still serving.

In video evidence, social media and face to face discussions, former recruited

outlined the impact of the national service that forced them to leave the country byany means necessary. Men and women talked about:

The economic devastation caused by their period of service

The practice of illegal detention, torture and inhumane treatment entailed inthe recruitment and maintenance of the indefinite national service

The psychological impact of forced recruitment and indefinite periods ofservice

The loss of employment and education opportunities

The health related impact of long term conscription


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3. Eritreas National Service: Indefinite Conscription andForced Labour

The only option for a woman to escape the harsh labour is to become pregnant,many of my friends had unplanned pregnancies and some got married just to escape

national service (Lydia 17 th round recruit now lives in Netherlands )

In Eritrea conscription into the national service is compulsory for all men andunmarried women between the ages of 18 and 50 1. Although the law limits nationalservice to 18 months, since the border war with Ethiopia in 1998, demobilisation hasgenerally not taken place, in the exceptional circumstances a conscript has beendemobilised it is through unofficia l channels (often through personal contacts).

Since the final year of high school is only provided in the Military Service TrainingCentre (Sawa Military Camp), children as young as 16 can be recruited. During theroundups that target potential draft dodgers and absconders, children under the ageof 18 have been caught up and inducted, trained and deployed for national service.Many recruits report to have been subjected to violence and ill-treatment for allegeddefiance or following a failed escape attempt. Although many women areambivalent about reporting it, recruits say it is well known that many women aresubjected to sexual violence from military commanders.

Given that recruits arent currently required for active military duties, much of theirtime is spent in what the government calls developmental activities under a plan

known as Warsay Yikealo Development Campaign. This involves mainly, hard labourin construction and agriculture, including working for construction companies ownedby the ruling party and even individuals associated with the ruling party (PFDJ). Theconscripts are paid $15 per month and have to pay for their food and subsistence outof that. 2

4. Impacts of Eritreas national service

Inevitably the net effect of the current st atus of Eritreas national service has been detrimental to the recruits, their families and communities and ultimately to Eritrea.The unprecedented outflow of refugees and particularly the nature of the journeys

1 David Bozzini, February 16 th , 2012 National Service and State Structures in Eritreahttp://www.ejpd.admin.ch/content/dam/data/migration/laenderinformationen/herkunftslaenderinformationen/afrika/eri/ERI-agreed-minutes-bozzini-e.pdf

2 GAIM KIBREAB, Forced labour in Eritrea J. of Modern African Studies, 47, 1 (2009), pp. 41 72. f 2009 Cambridge UniversityPress doi:10.1017/S0022278X08003650 Printed in the United Kingdomhttp://ehrea.org/force.pdf
http://www.ejpd.admin.ch/content/dam/data/migration/laenderinformationen/herkunftslaenderinformationen/afrika/eri/ERI-agreed-minutes-bozzini-e.pdfhttp://www.ejpd.admin.ch/content/dam/data/migration/laenderinformationen/herkunftslaenderinformationen/afrika/eri/ERI-agreed-minutes-bozzini-e.pdfhttp://www.ejpd.admin.ch/content/dam/data/migration/laenderinformationen/herkunftslaenderinformationen/afrika/eri/ERI-agreed-minutes-bozzini-e.pdfhttp://ehrea.org/force.pdfhttp://ehrea.org/force.pdfhttp://ehrea.org/force.pdfhttp://www.ejpd.admin.ch/content/dam/data/migration/laenderinformationen/herkunftslaenderinformationen/afrika/eri/ERI-agreed-minutes-bozzini-e.pdfhttp://www.ejpd.admin.ch/content/dam/data/migration/laenderinformationen/herkunftslaenderinformationen/afrika/eri/ERI-agreed-minutes-bozzini-e.pdf


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has also had implications for the wider region and further afield, as the number ofvulnerable refugees in need of support continues to spiral.

4.1 Impact on recruits

sometimes it is double jeopardy, even your own family don t understand the pressureyou are under and you can t talk about it freely with them either

(Lydia 17 th round recruit now lives in Netherlands)

Psychological impact: The psychological impact of the current status of the

national service is like a double edged sword devastating young people. On the onehand the national service is a cause of major stress and trauma at every stage:forced separation from family members, hard labour and military training underextreme conditions are all causes of potential trauma. Those who contemplateleaving and those caught over-staying their leaves are all punished severely (andoften tortured).On the other hand the systematic and indefinite nature of the service has shatteredthe entire societys resilience, making it impossible for yo ung people to relay on theirrespective communities for support and healing.

Relationships are disrupted at all levels in the society (family relationships,

friendships, romantic relationships, relationships with spiritual leaders etc). As aresult of these discontinuities young people are unable to draw from the socialcapital of their respective communities to overcome difficulties and remain resilient.

Recovering from the impacts of such devastation, both on the individual andcollective levels is likely going to be a major challenge for Eritreans for a long time tocome.

I served four years and now I am a refugee... I am trying my best, I am trying veryhard to change my life but all the youth I left behind are still there

(Iyob served 4 years now lives in the UK)

Economic impact: The Eritrean economy is largely based on subsistenceagriculture with over 60% of its population relying on agricultural activities, for foodand income. The indefinite national service takes the most productive membersaway from their families and villages and this plays a significant role on the risinglevels of poverty in the country.

Much of the non agriculture based economy (construction, service industry, smallscale industries and increasingly mining) is dominated by the government and theprivate sector is pushed out of the market both as a result of labour shortage (as theworkforce is engaged otherwise in the national service) as well as the stiff


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competition from the government that benefits from an unrestricted supply of freelabour. In many cases, it is diaspora based Eritreans that are sustaining families andeven whole communities.

We were told to go for military training in the middle of the semester at second yearin university (Yonas served 4 years now lives in the US)

Loss of opportunities : for the majority of young Eritreans the most productive yearsare now spent serving the interminable national service working on projects andinitiatives that they have no stake on. This means they lose on opportunities todevelop careers, get trained for a trade or vocation and/or start families. By contrastEritreans who leave the country, even to unhospitable refugee receiving countries,are able to send money to their families with visible positive impact for their families.Indeed many diaspora based Eritreans including those within the national serviceconscription age visit Eritrea during the summer months and the contrast in the lifeopportunity differences are starkly visible.

Some of the punishment is too harsh even for animals let alone for human beingswho are serving their country for free. They kicked us all the time even on our necks,

you can imagine the potential consequences for our lives(Abdela 17 th round served 5 years, currently lives in Indonesia)

Torture and inhumane treatment : given the length and nature of the nationalservice, patriotism and a sense of duty are no longer the factors maintaining it. Theregime uses force and often brutal force, to capture young people and recruit theminto the national service and then to keep them stationed in remote areas of thecountry away from their families with little or no break for years on end. Those whoattempt to flee and are unsuccessful, are detained and severely punished oftenusing methods that can only be described as torture. Many former recruits report tohave fled the country following several episodes of beatings and maltreatments inthe various detention facilities operated by the regiments. Sawa training centre,Kiloma training centre, Wia training centre have all got some of the countrys mostnotorious detention facilities. National service recruits are also said to be held infacilities at Dahlak Island. Many recruits die during those punishments orsubsequently as a result of injuries sustained.

I have a friend who died because she didn t receive medical treatment for the pneumonia she contracted when we were there, a totally preventable death that still

haunts all of us (Lydia 17 th round recruit)

Health related problems: the nature of hard work recruits are required to engage in,often under harsh climates of the training facilities and areas of deployment, in theabsence of basic provisions, often means many recruits become ill and those withpre-existing conditions are even more vulnerable to health deteriorations. The

training and deployment areas are extremely poorly equipped to deal with the


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volume of need. S ince one of the few ways of official demobilisation is ill health,authorities tend to respond to requests for medical attention negatively; as a resultmany have died unnecessarily or contracted serious illnesses. Many flee to savetheir lives from such unnecessary death and illness.

4.2 Implications for Eritrea

everybody has a dream about escaping the national service one day, there is noother way out of it even if you fall ill they ignore you till it is too late (Filmon decidedto leave when he fell ill with a serious heart problem and was refused treatment. He

now lives in Sweden)

Refugee crisis: Over 300,000 refugees have been registered by the UNHCR in thepast decade, it is believed that many more slip through Ethiopia and Sudan withoutregistration, putting the current estimate of Eritrean refugees close to a million intotal. Given Eritreas population is estimated to be between 4 and 5 million thefigures represent a rather large proportion of the population. While refugee camps inEthiopia and Sudan have sheltered a large number of women, children and elderlymen, UNHCR figures show that close to half of the refugees in recent years havebeen women and men under the age of 25 fleeing the indefinite national service.

Unaccompanied refugee children: There are thousands of unaccompaniedEritrean children in refugee camps across the region. With little support andprotection they are vulnerable and exposed to abuse, violence and exploitation.Children flee Eritrea for various reasons, but those interviewed often state thatprominent amongst their reasons to leave the country was their fear of militaryconscription.

Level of militarisation: the level of militarization in Eritrea has gone beyond what isconsidered maximum level of militarization in any given situation. According to theInternational Crisis Group (ICG), such maximum is believed to be 10% of a giventotal population. In Eritrea, accurate figures are not possible to obtain. But plausibleestimations indicate that the level of militarization has already gone to more than25% of the total population. In situations like this, a society ceases to functionproperly 3.

3 Daniel Mekonnen, "Drivers of Fragility and the Perils of State Failure in Eritrea, paper presented at theInternational Confere nce on Human Security: Threats, Risks, Crisis, 18 19 October 2012, Kadir Has University,Istanbul, TurkeyNicole Hirt & and Abdulkader S. Mohammad. 'Dreams don't come true in Eritrea': Anomie and familydisintegration due to the structural militarization of society. Journal of Modern African Studies 2013 51(1):

139-168.


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5 ConclusionYou have only one life and you are not going to gamble with that life it is a huge risk

escaping Eritrea but it has to be done (Filmon)

Military service for public works constitutes compulsory or forced labour. Eritrea,National Service recruits are not only forced to take part in public works, but alsowork for rms owned by the ruling party, and even for personal enrichment of seniorarmy o ffi cers.

Article 25 of Forced Labour Convention 1930 (ratified by Eritrea in Feb 2000) states:The illegal exaction of forced or compulsory labour shall be punishable as a penaloffence and it shall be an obligation on any Member ratifying this Convention.

The Convention is an indication of the international commu nitys determination toeradicate the slavery -like practice of forced labour. The se were reinforced by theGeneral Conference of the ILOs adoption of the Convention Concerning the

Abolition of Forced Labour (AFLC 1957). AFLC stipulates that states that ratify theConvention are required to suppress and not to make use of any form of forced orcompulsory labour: (a) as a means of political coercion or education (b) as amethod of mobilizing and using labour for purposes of economic development; as ameans o f labour discipline.

The ALFC, states compulsory military service, as one of the exemptions whichotherwise would have fallen under the definition of forced or compulsory labour,however the service extracted in virtue of compulsory military service should be of apurely military character and necessary for national defense.

Therefore the open-ended Warsay yikalo Development Project component of theNational Service is forced labour and a form of modern slavery prohibited in both theabove Conventions.

The border war between Eritrea and Ethiopia came to an end amidst muchdevastation fourteen years ago and although a peace deal was agreed, there are stilltensions between the two countries. It is these tensions that the government ofEritrea often uses to justify the indefinite national service. However, the activities thatnational service recruits cannot be classed as defence activities essential for nationalsecurity.

Kjetil Tronvoll & Daniel R. Mekonnen The African Garrison State: Human Rights and Political Development inEritrea (James Currey, July 2014 forthcoming)


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The national service is neither safeguarding national interest nor providing valuableexperience and opportunities for the young people serving; to the contrary it hasbecome detrimental to Eritrea and all Eritreans. The indefinite national service is amajor cause of the Eritrean refugee crisis including human trafficking and hazardouscrossings over the Mediterranean.

I refer to it as slavery; if an individual is worked like an animal, without any respect ordignity it is slavery and that is how I was treated (Robel)

6 Recommendations

Stop National Service Slavery campaign calls on:

The Government of Eritrea:

1. To comply with the proclamation governing the national service and limits theperiod to the 18 months stipulated there.

2. To comply with t he ILOs forced labour conventions (numbers 29 and 105) ,and the 1998 ILO Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work.These provisions oblige all member states to promote core conventions,including the forced labour conventions, regardless of whether they haveratified them or not.

3. To abide by the Universal Declaration for Human rights and stop the practiceof forced labour and indefinite national service. Article 4 of the Declarationstates: No one shall be held in slavery or servitude; slavery and the slavetrade shall be prohibited in all their forms.

4. To implement the recommendations made, calling Eritrea to stop the practiceof forced and indefinite national service, during Eritreas first UPR in 2009.

5. To accept the Special Rapporteur for Human Rights in Eritreas outstanding request for a visit to assess the situation in the country.

The UN

1. To address Eritreas continued request for assistance with enforcing theprovisions of the Eritrea- Ethiopia Border Commissions ruling, by facilitatingEthiopias compliance with the ruling.


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2. To take serious measures against Eritrea for failing to comply with Article 4 ofthe Universal Declaration of Human Rights as well as Article 25 of ForcedLabour Convention.

I left because I am not a slave and I don t want to be a slave in my own country(Filmon )

eritrea: national service - slavery by another name

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