In a response to a question in Parliament from Lord Ahmad, the UK government has said it will act if companies violate laws on Eritrean mines. The question was sparked off by the Eritrea Focus report on Mining and Repression in Eritrea.
Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, has provided the following answer to your written parliamentary question (HL8640):
Question: To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the recent report by Eritrea Focus to the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Eritrea, Mining & Repression in Eritrea: corporate complicity in human rights abuses, and its implications for Government policy. (HL8640)
Tabled on: 14 June 2018
Answer: Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon:
The Government has received the recent report by Eritrea Focus. Eritrea remains a human rights priority country under the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) Annual Human Rights Report. The FCO and the British Embassy in Asmara regularly engages with UK companies, and companies with UK investment, involved in the extractive sector in Eritrea. Discussions include their duty to comply with the legislative and regulatory requirements of operating in Eritrea, and the human rights of Eritrean nationals involved in their operations in Eritrea.
The British Government will take appropriate action against companies and/or individuals who fail to comply with the relevant legislation.
VANCOUVER — An upcoming decision from Canada’s top court on whether allegations of human rights abuses filed against a Vancouver mining company will go to trial in Canada could set a groundbreaking precedent, according to a human rights watchdog.
Four plaintiffs, all Eritrean refugees, allege the mining company — called Nevsun Resources Ltd. — is complicit in violations of international law norms against forced labour, slavery and torturestemming from the construction of an Eritrean mine. Sixty per cent of the venture is owned by Nevsun through subsidiaries, while the remainder is owned by Eritrean state companies.
Nevsun has wholly denied all allegations of human rights abuses at the Bisha gold mine, and argued Eritrean courts would be the appropriate place — known in legal terms as a “forum conveniens” — for the case to be heard.
The Supreme Court’s decision could have a significant impact on how Canadian companies operate overseas, said Karyn Keenan, director of Above Ground, a group that works to ensure that companies based in Canada or supported by the Canadian state respect human rights wherever they operate.
“It could be hugely precedent-setting,” Keenan said in an interview, adding, “or it could be not.”
Because the alleged violations occurred abroad, said Keenan, a decision in favour of the plaintiffs could go two ways.
The SCOC could decide that international plaintiffs can hold Canadian companies accountable in Canadian courts only when violations occur in countries where plaintiffs have little or no access to justice because of corruption or violence.
Or it could decide Canadian companies should be accountable to the Canadian justice system regardless of the situation in the country where its operation is located.
“It opens the window a little bit, or it opens it a lot,” she said, adding the fundamental question is “is it a legitimate thing to (bring suit against a company) to the courts in a country where the parent company is based?”
Canadian companies, like Nevsun, she said, raise capital in Canada and are incorporated under Canadian law. But they set up corporate structures through subsidiaries in other countries, which allows them to avoid legal responsibility in Canada, since subsidiaries are separate legal entities.
“It’s been very difficult legally and practically to bring things back to Canada where the parent company is,” she said. “Since (Canada) really is where the centre of corporate activity, responsibility and decision-making is, it seems appropriate for people who are harmed by that whole corporate body … to bring it back to Canada.”
Nevsun did not respond to a request for interview.
Eritrea’s National Policy Proclamation obliges Eritrean citizens to serve 18 months of compulsory military or government service. And while the Eritrean government denies this conscription is the same as forced labour, a report from Amnesty Internationalfound “use of conscript labour in mining and construction plants owned by private companies, as well as the indefinite nature of national service, amounts to forced labour.”
Keenan said companies often argue laws governing the ability of Canadian courts to weigh in on the international conduct of national companies might open the door for what is known as “forum shopping.” This is when plaintiffs from foreign countries shop around for a judiciary in a country they feel offers them the best hope of winning their case.
But in situations where human rights are at stake, she said, forum shopping actually makes a lot of sense.
“If you’re taking on a multinational corporation and you’re suing them, and you’re willing to assume all the emotional and the practical and the financial risks and costs that go with that, you’ve thought this out,” she said.
“So, of course you’re assessing where you have the best chance of succeeding, and of course you’re assessing what kinds of repercussions there will be for you depending on the forum.”
Looking at the question from a different angle, said Keenan, one might ask: Is it legitimate for non-Canadians who claim to have been harmed by a Canadian corporate entity to want access to a process to hold that entity accountable?
“I think the answer for me, overwhelmingly is yes,” she said. “In the vast majority of these cases, the (human) risks are foreseeable. … You knew what you were doing. You’re responsible. You went in with your eyes open. And you should be held to account.”
In a memorandum addressed to heads of 47 delegations of member states to the 38th Session ofthe UN Human Rights Council meeting currently meeting in Geneva, the EPDP stated the situation in Eritrea has not changed even a bit in years and urged the UN body to increase efforts towardsimplementing the recommendations of the Commission of Inquiry (COI) for human rights. The Council was also asked to extend the mandate of the Special Rapporteur to Eritrea.
Ms Sheila B. Keetharuth, the UN Special Rapporteur who held the mandate for the last six years, is now ending her term of service and the Council will consider renewal of the mandate and the appointment of her successor. However, the effort to renew the mandate is expected to be challenged by the Eritrean regime and its supporters. Ms Sheila Keetharuth is scheduled to address the 38th Session during the morning hours of Tuesday, 26 June.
Also addressed to Mr. Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, EPDP memorandum, dated 21 June 2018, briefly updated the delegations on the unchanged human rights situation in Eritrea and strongly asked the Council not only to renew the mandate of the Special Rapporteur but also to take concrete actions towards bringing to justice those Eritrean officials who were suspected of having perpetrated crimes against humanity for decades.
The memorandum, which regretted for the Council's failure so far to implement its decisions, on the other handexpressed gratefulness for the services rendered in the past six years by the outgoing Eritrea Special Rapporteur, Ms Sheila Keetharuth.
Copies of the EPDP memorandum were sent also to foreign ministries of concerned countries and their embassies abroad.
In the meantime, the EPDP attended at UN-Geneva a side-event on Eritrea on Monday, 25 June, that discussed the achievements of the Special Rapporteur and the challenges ahead for human rights activists in regard to Eritrea. Ms Sheila Keetharuth said in her brief intervention at the side-event that human rights activists should continue their efforts to bring Eritrean human rights abusers to justice by establishing fact-finding and activity centers in many countries of the globe.
The Eritrean People's Democratic Party (EPDP) has been in the forefront of the struggle supporting and urging efforts for peaceful resolution of the Eritrea-Ethiopia border conflict. The record is well documents in its stated positions throughout the past several years.
In this light, the EPDP supports and highly commends the bold and correct initiative of the EPRDF under the leadership of Prime Minister Dr Abiy Ahmed to resolve the border conflict without any pre-conditions and on the basis of the Algiers Agreement. EPDP also warmly salutes the steps being taken by the Ethiopian ruling party in releasing prisoners and its pledges to widen space for the full participation of political organizations, the civil associations and the mass media in the building of a better future.
The EPDP condemns in the strongest terms possible the terrorist act of 23 June 2018 at the Meskele Square mass demonstration organized in support of the new Ethiopian Prime Minister,Dr. Abiy Ahmed. Whoever the misguided actors may be, the attempt to create chaos and nip in the bud the promising Ethiopian mass uprising for change is a failed endeavor and stands to be denounced. We are pleased that Dr. Abiy Ahmed escaped safe from the attempt to harm him, and express our sympathies to the injured persons and convey our condolences to bereaved families.
the EPDP supports the so far positive gesture of the Eritrean regime in accepting the Ethiopian initiative for peaceful resolution of the border conflict and its decision to send a delegation to Ethiopia. However, we underline the truism that the only sure path for peace, justice, prosperity and mutual respect in the region is by ensuring a realistic opening up political space also in Eritrea to guarantee success of the rule of law, justice and constitutional governance where has been absent.
In this regard, we earnestly look for accords between the two governments that servethe best interests of the peoples of Eritrea and Ethiopia through promoting the aspirations for peace, justice and democracy in the two countries. Needless to say, we firmly oppose agreements that give advantage to rotten authoritarian order of fear and terror in our country.
We in the EPDP also seize this opportunity to call upon our peoples to work hard to promote the their old fraternal relations. It will be incumbent upon the peoples of Eritrea and Ethiopia to critically evaluate any misunderstandings between their governments and frown upon any move that can negatively affect the people-to-people interactions.
May Peace, Justice and Democracy prevail in Eritrea and Ethiopia!!
Published: 12:54 BST, 24 June 2018 | Updated: 12:54 BST, 24 June 2018
Zimbabwe's President Emmerson Mnangagwa said he was the target of the attack which injured dozens of people
The blast that rocked a ruling party campaign rally in which Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa narrowly escaped unharmed, has plunged the country into uncharted waters a month before the first elections in the post-Robert Mugabe era.
But authorities on Sunday ruled out delaying the polls as police said 49 rallygoers, including the country's two vice presidents, were injured in the attack, some of them seriously.
Mnangagwa has called for calm after the blast which went off "inches" away from him.
Footage circulating on social media showed an explosion and plumes of smoke around the president as he walked down stairs from the podium at the city's White City stadium in the second largest city of Bulawayo.
Mnangagwa said he was the target of the attack, which also injured Vice-Presidents Kembo Mohadi and Constantino Chiwenga, and which the state media is describing as an assassination attempt.
The device "exploded a few inches away from me", the president told state broadcaster on Saturday night, blaming the attack on his "mortal enemies".
"These are my mortal enemies and the attempts have been so many".
"It´s not the first attempt (on) my life. I'm used to it. Six times my office has been broken into; cyanide was put in my offices so many times."
The polls in five weeks will be the first since Zimbabwe's veteran leader Mugabe resigned following a brief military takeover in November last year after 37 years in power.
While investigations are under way, the government has ruled out a delay in the July 30 elections.
"As for the elections being postponed, a state of emergency being declared (due to the Bulawayo attack)... rest assured that the electoral programme proceeds as scheduled," the presidential spokesman George Charamba told the state-run Sunday Mail.
Police spokeswoman Charity Charamba on Sunday told reporters that "comprehensive investigations are in progress".
The upcoming election will be Mnangagwa's first at the ballot box.
- 'People must unite' -
In a voice note he released to the state media on Sunday, Mnangagwa called for unity and peace.
"In November (when Mugabe was removed) we all came together motivated by a dream, (for) a free, democratic and prosperous Zimbabwe, a peaceful Zimbabwe," he said, adding "now some people are trying to kill our dream".
"While we have all chosen the path of peace others unfortunately still cling to the tools of violence. I assure you they will not succeed," said the president.
"We as a people must unite."
Previous elections in Zimbabwe had been marred by electoral fraud, intimidation and violence, including the killing of scores of opposition supporters in 2008.
But never had there been explosives detonated at rallies or targeted directly at any political leaders.
Mnangagwa has pledged to hold free and fair elections as he seeks to mend international relations and have sanctions against Zimbabwe dropped.
- 'Internal crisis in ZANU-PF'-
While Bulawayo has long been a bastion of opposition to the ZANU-PF and it was Mnangagwa's first rally in the city, commentators suggest the attack could have been instigated by internal ructions within the ruling party.
"It looks very much like an internal crisis within ZANU-PF," said Gideon Chitanga of the Johannesburg based think tank Political Economy Southern Africa. "The end game in ZANU-PF succession politics will be long and it's ramifications dire".
Yet others point to the old grievances linked to the 1982-87 Gukurahundi crackdown which was widely seen as an effort by then-prime minister Mugabe to vanquish his ally-turned-foe, the ethnic Ndebele liberation leader Joshua Nkomo.
"The main uncertainties now are whether the reaction to the attack includes a crackdown on dissent and political rivals in the name of security or a delay in the election," said Hasnain Malik of the London-based Exotix Capital.
But for ordinary voters like Harare-based Crispen Pfundirwa, the main concern is that security is not tight in the run-up to the election.
"Since 1980 we have not seen any bomb blast at a rally. These sort of things don't happen in Zimbabwe but in Iraqi and Iran," said Pfundirwa.
ኣብ ፈይስቡክ meadi zete Eritrawan ወይ ድማ ኣብ ኢመይልና This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. ፡ ሕቶን ርእይቶን ልኣኹልና።
Three Eritrean teenagers killed themselves after travelling to Britain without their parents
At least three teenage refugees who arrived in Britain from the migrant camp in Calais have killed themselves in the past six months, raising questions about how the Home Office and local authorities handle profoundly vulnerable asylum-seeking children and young people in the UK.
Three young men from Eritrea, two of them aged 18 and one aged 19, have taken their own lives in London since last November. All of them fled conflict in Eritrea, travelling without their parents across Africa and Europe as young teenagers, and all spent time in the Calais migrant camp. A fourth young asylum seeker from Eritrea whose name and age has not been made public is also known to have killed himself last year.
Filmon Yemane had recently turned 18 when he killed himself in November. Alexander Tekle, also 18, took his own life a fortnight later in December, a year after he had arrived in the UK, hidden in the back of a refrigerated lorry. A third teenager, N (whom the Guardian is not naming, at the request of his family), killed himself last month, aged 19, in the same hostel in north London where Yemane had stayed.
An inquest was held into Yemane’s death in April. It highlighted that he was in a state of crisis in the 24 hours before he took his own life, and found that although employees at the sheltered accommodation where he lived had reported a deterioration in his condition to NHS mental health staff, their concerns were not “escalated appropriately within the crisis team”. A pre-inquest hearing was held into Tekle’s death last month; there is no date yet for the full hearing, and no scheduled inquest yet into the third young man’s death.
Filmon Yemane. Photograph: Family Photo
In the absence of other inquest findings, it is impossible to assess what prompted the three teenagers, who were acquainted with each other, to end their lives. All of them had been through extremely traumatic experiences, having fled conflict and encountered multiple dangers on the way to the UK, not least in the often violent environment of Calais, and risked their lives when they attempted to enter Britain by smuggling themselves on to lorries and trains. However, people who knew them have said that they subsequently found the protracted process of applying for refugee status in the UK extremely stressful.
Hamid, another Eritrean asylum-seeking teenager, who knew all three teenagers, said Alexander Tekle and N, the young man who killed himself last month, were both extremely concerned about the length of time it was taking for the Home Office to decide on whether they would be granted refugee status here. Hamid asked for his real name not to be printed, afraid that speaking out might somehow complicate his own asylum claim, which still remains unresolved, three years after his arrival in the UK at the age of 15.
One 18-year-old attempted suicide and ended up in a mental health unit, and was then billed for his healthcare.Elaine Chase of Becoming AdultHe said: “Alex and I were close friends. He was such a nice guy but he was giving up on life. He was stressing about Home Office things – we all were. I tried to tell him not to worry too much, but he was thinking about it all the time. He was saying: once you have your papers, you can start your life, you can start college. He wanted to start work; he wanted to send money to his mother. Without papers you can’t work.”
He was unsure about whether Yemane had ongoing concerns about his Home Office status, but he knew that the third young person, N, was very anxious about whether he was going to be accepted as a refugee. “He was worried about Home Office and being sent back to his country and stressing about that,” he said.
The Home Office is understood not to be currently sending people back to Eritrea, because it is considered too dangerous; however child asylum seekers who turn 18 and are not granted refugee status remain in limbo, unable to work, or study, and liable to be sent to immigration detention centres if they do not leave the country voluntarily.
Benjamin Hunter met Tekle while doing volunteer work with refugees in Calais when Tekle had just turned 16. He stayed in touch with him when he travelled to England. “Alex experienced deeply traumatic events on his journey to the UK, in particular in Libya and in Calais, where he lived alone in a tent for as long as a year, subject to abuse and neglect,” Hunter said.
Tekle was wrongly age-assessed on arrival in the UK; it was not easy to get his birth certificate sent from Eritrea, although the documents were eventually sent. For a while he was treated as an adult, and sent to live in a unit for adults where he experienced real difficulties, Hunter said. Since arriving in the UK Tekle had at times been homeless, and occasionally drank heavily as a way of alleviating the stress, Hunter said.
“Instead of receiving the support and help that he desperately needed, upon his arrival in the UK, he told he was not eligible for support as a child or care-leaver. He was placed outside of care, in a hostel for adult asylum seekers where he was violently assaulted,” he said. “Alex was stressed about the wellbeing of his family, about the uncertainty of his future and in particular was stressed by his asylum claim and the thought that he might be deported. The last thing he said to me, the day before he died, was, ‘Why have I not received my papers, like my friends have?’”
His father, Tecle Sium Tesfamichel, a refugee now living in Sudan, said: “Alexander is not coming back. But I want to know this doesn’t happen to children and young people again. These children, who have to leave home through no fault of their own, are traumatised on their journey through the desert and the sea. It is the job of the authorities to look after and guide these children, who come to the UK alone. They shouldn’t come to die.”
The family’s lawyers, Bhatt Murphy, would like the coroner to examine the actions of the local authorities responsible for him, the adequacy of his accommodation, of the age assessments, and of access to mental health services.
An Eritrean woman who works with young asylum seekers (who asked not to be named) said she observed many different pressures making life hard for newly arrived teenagers. “The journey, then the welcome and reception they get here is not what they expected,” she said. “They feel like they are unwanted.
“Everything is so different from how they have lived at home. The loneliness, the language barrier; they are placed in accommodation with no one to talk to.”
The mental health problems experienced by unaccompanied asylum-seeking children have been well documented by refugee organisations and children’s charities.
Sam Royston, policy director at the Children’s Society, which has been carrying out new research into the mental health of unaccompanied asylum-seeking children in the UK, said: “These vulnerable young people may have experienced the trauma of war, persecution, bereavement and exploitation, all of which can have a huge impact upon their mental health. Too often, they do not get the help they need ... Practitioners we spoke to knew of young people who had sadly self-harmed and attempted suicide.”
A study by the children’s commissioner last year warned that Home Office delays in processing asylum claims were causing difficulties. “Testimony from migrant children demonstrates how the experience of uncertainty and waiting leads to a state of paralysis and depression, seriously undermining their wellbeing,” the report states.
Elaine Chase, an academic who has interviewed more than 60 unaccompanied young migrants in the UK for the research project, Becoming Adult, said about a third of the people she spoke to had experienced mental health difficulties ranging from difficulties sleeping, anxiety, severe depression to suicidal feelings, often related to uncertainty about their Home Office status. “One 18-year-old attempted suicide and ended up in a mental health unit, and was then billed for his healthcare and told he had to leave the country,” she said.
Her colleague on the research project Jennifer Allsopp said the migrants interviewed tended to be more troubled about the uncertainty they faced about their futures than by the trauma they had experienced in the past. “For them, good mental health is associated with being able to work towards future aspirations; having a sense of stability, moving onwards with their lives. It is very hard to do that, if not impossible, without security of legal status,” she said.
Rosalind Compton, an immigration solicitor with the charity Coram Children’s Legal Centre, who runs advice sessions for asylum-seeking children, said many were under extreme stress. She said she knew an 18-year-old who had attempted suicide in December after being refused asylum. “There needs to be significantly improved mental health support available for all asylum-seeking young people,” she said. “Mental health support is delayed or made ineffective by Home Office delays.”
The Calais migrant camp in 2015. Photograph: David Levene for the Guardian
Liz Clegg met Alexander Tekle during the two years she spent working in Calais, supporting child migrants in the camp. She now runs a centre in Birmingham to support those who have arrived in the UK. “He was lovely. I remember him getting in the car and singing along to the radio. He came across like a genuine, funny, sociable boy,” she said. She said many young people were destroyed by spending a long time in Calais trying to get to Britain. Those who spent only a few days in the camp tended to be in a better state when they arrived here.
“It had a profound effect on them and then there’s a delusional notion that it will all be OK when you get to the UK. That can be the final nail. You’ve held on and held on, you’ve kept going and you’ve got here, and then you realise that the dream is not the dream,” she said.
Britain gives temporary leave to remain to all minors who arrive here, but those who are found ineligible for refugee status are asked to begin making plans to return to their home country when they turn 17 and a half. Many of them struggle to gather the correct evidence to show that they should be eligible for refugee status; it can be difficult to access legal advice. “You have to have evidence that you need refugee protection,” Clegg said.
“It’s a nightmare process, and they don’t understand it. None of these children read the Geneva convention or had the slightest idea of the asylum process. For many of them, they so believed that they could get to the UK and everything would be all right, and then they get rejected. It’s hugely stressful. The whole hostile immigration environment is turned towards them. If you are told you can be here only until you are 17 and a half, it’s inhumane – it’s a form of abuse.”
A Home Office spokesperson said: “We recognise that some unaccompanied asylum-seeking children have fled persecution in their countries of origin and experienced potentially dangerous journeys before reaching the UK. We are committed to reaching asylum decisions as quickly as we can, while ensuring these often complex cases are given proper consideration. Unaccompanied children are looked after by local authority children’s services, who are required to assess their individual needs, including access to mental health support.”
Hamid, who has seen three teenagers in his circle take their own lives in the space of six months, said he still struggled to understand why they decided to give up on life. “Alex was so generous, he would give me his last money; he gave me his clothes. If he had only £1 he would buy two drinks – one for him and one for you. He would share everything with you.”
He remains extremely concerned about his own immigration status and has recently received a Home Office letter informing him that he is a “person without leave”, liable for detention and possible removal from the country. The letter states: “You are not allowed to WORK. You are not allowed to STUDY.”
• In the UK, Samaritans can be contacted on 116 123 or email . In the US, the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is 1-800-273-8255. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Other international suicide helplines can be found at www.befrienders.org.
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Ethiopians chant slogans during a rally in support of the new Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, June 23, 2018.
Ethiopia’s new prime minister said “a few people” were killed in an explosion at a political rally Saturday in the capital.
Abiy Ahmed also said several people were injured in the blast, which a rally organizer said was caused by a grenade. The attack occurred as he was waving to the crowd of tens of thousands. Police are investigating.
The prime minister added: “Love always wins. Killing others is a defeat. To those who tried to divide us, I want to tell you that you have not succeeded.”
In a televised interview after the explosion, Abiy said the incident was “an unsuccessful attempt by forces who do not want to see Ethiopia united.”
Ethiopians heartened by a wave of reforms under Abiy had packed Meskel Square in a show of support with numbers unseen in recent years in the East African nation.
Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed waves to supporters as he attends a rally in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, June 23, 2018.
Major changes
Since Abiy took office in April, he has made major changes to the country, including releasing almost all jailed journalists, dropping charges against activists critical of the government and moving to liberalize the economy.
He has also pledged to work toward reconciliation with rival Eritrea, by implementing a long-ignored 2002 border demarcation. Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki this week described the peace overtures from Ethiopia as “positive signals.”
The White House said Thursday that it was encouraged by recent progress Ethiopia and Eritrea have made toward resolving their longstanding differences. A statement described the leadership of Abiy and Isaias as “courageous.”
Ethiopian security forces intervene on Meskel Square in Addis Ababa, June 23, 2018, where a blast killed several people during a rally called by the Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed.
Media restrictions dropped
Ethiopia’s government also says it has removed internet restrictions on 246 websites and TV channels.
The prime minister’s chief of staff, Fitsum Arega, announced the news on Twitter Friday, saying “freedom of expression is a foundational right.”
“A free flow of information is essential for engaged and responsible citizenry. Only a free market of ideas will lead to the truth,” he added.
The unblocked news sites include two prominent pro-opposition sites, the Ethiopian Satellite Television (ESAT), based in Amsterdam, and the Oromia Media Network (OMN), based in Minnesota.
Many of the unblocked news sites are run from overseas. The media rights group, the Committee to Protect Journalists, welcomed the decision Friday.
“Allowing Ethiopians to access these news outlets is a positive sign that Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed is committed to delivering his promise to end Ethiopia’s censorship of the independent press,” said CPJ Africa Program Coordinator Angela Quintal.
