NEW CAMPAIGN: Foreign investment fuels forced labor in Eritrea
By Carlo Ladd, From Freedom United
| Imagine being conscripted by your government and trapped indefinitely in state-sponsored forced labor. It’s the alarming reality for hundreds of thousands of adults in the small northeast African nation of Eritrea, where the government’s program of mandatory and indefinite conscription—known as the National Service—forces citizens into military and civil posts, including hard labor in construction and mining.[1] Demand divestment |
Freedom United, along with our partners Eritrea Focus, MiningWatch Canada, Publish What You Pay UK, and London Mining Network, is calling for an end to foreign investment in Eritrea until the government has ended its program of indefinite forced conscription. Add your name to the campaign today and demand divestment from forced labor in Eritrea. Despite the endemic nature of forced labor in Eritrea, foreign investors and governments—including the European Union—continue to pour money into the authoritarian state, effectively turning a blind eye to the fact they are facilitating modern slavery. The National Service is one of the core reasons why Eritreans are among the largest refugee communities in the world.[2] Sadly, Eritreans that flee are themselves vulnerable to exploitation at the hands of traffickers and people smugglers, meaning state-sponsored forced labor in Eritrea fuels human trafficking beyond its borders.[3] The EU, the destination of choice for many Eritrean refugees, has funneled millions of euros into Eritrea as part of its Emergency Trust Fund for Africa, which aims to “address the root cause of migration.”[4] Critics argue that this has been done in a deliberately opaque way so as to sidestep scrutiny of this blatant contradiction of the EU’s human rights values.[5] The European Parliament recently passed a resolution to freeze funding to a road project in Eritrea which the EU openly admits uses “personnel…in national service”—i.e. forced conscript labor.[6] The EU recently rejected a request for further funding, which is a promising step, but it continues to pour money into other projects in the country.[7] It’s also not just the EU that’s to blame. Over a dozen foreign mining companies continue to bolster the government and its system of forced labor through their investments. Among them is Australian-based mining company Danakali Ltd., which is generously supported by banking giant JP Morgan.[8] Take action now |
Danakali is pushing ahead with development of its potash mine in Colluli, Eritrea, yet the company’s website makes no mention of the endemic system of forced conscript labor in Eritrea.[9] In fact, the project is a joint venture directly with the government, via the Eritrean National Mining Corporation, meaning that however responsibly their project is run, profits will directly strengthen the state’s exploitative system.[10] When we wrote to Danakali shortly before launching this campaign to express our concerns, they responded assuring us that they are taking every step to ensure that forced labor is not used on their project.[11][12] While we appreciate their response, we remain concerned that by operating in Eritrea, supporting this system of forced conscription is unavoidable. We’ve seen this storyline before. Between 2016 and 2019, Freedom United and partners gathered over 180,000 signatures calling for divestment from Canadian mining giant Nevsun Resources Ltd, which was accused of using forced conscript labor at its Bisha mine in Eritrea.[13] Our campaign successfully put pressure on Blackrock and M&G Investments, led to meetings with Nevsun senior staff, and raised public awareness about the overlooked issue of forced conscript labor in Eritrea’s mines. In 2018, Nevsun was taken over by Chinese mining corporation Zijin, and investors’ stocks in the company were sold. We tried to reach out to Zijin to ask about their policies and practices at the Bisha mine; we have not received a response. Meanwhile, hundreds of thousands of Eritreans remain trapped in forced labor. We know the fight is far from over. That’s why we are launching this new campaign asking foreign businesses and institutions investing in Eritrea to use their power to pressure the government and call for the end of forced conscription. We demand that foreign actors investing in Eritrea divest immediately and declare their opposition to forced conscription. By making it economically and politically costly for the system of forced labor to continue, we can pressure the government to change—and pave the way to Eritrea becoming a country in which it is possible to invest and do good business. Join us in demanding reform in Eritrea today. By driving divestment from Eritrea, we can drive forced labor out of business. In solidarity, Carlo and the Freedom United team |
