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In a memo addressed to Italian Foreign Minister Paolo Gentiloni, the Eritrean People's Democratic Party (EPDP) expressed its "profound disappointment and regret" to Italy for allowing the so-called Young-PFDJ to hold a festival in Rome.

The memorandum, sent on 27 March 2016, informed the minister and the Italian government that the YPFDJ "is nothing but a propaganda and security outfit of the Asmara regime" and that its annual festivals are addressed by officials of PFDJ who aim and usually succeed "to brainwash and poison innocent European children of Eritrean origin with the regime's propaganda of hate and inter-communal divisions".

The EPDP memo did not hide that the so-called Young-PFDJ can also be referred as the “Isaias Youth” and that it reminds one of the "hated Hitlerjugend (Hitler Youth) of the last century".

The memorandum further explained that the Asmara regime uses the youth and their parents to intimidate those who openly talk against the repressive regime and that it was one of the top leaders of this YPDDJ that earlier this year accused a Dutch professor, Mirjam van Reisen, on false claims of 'libel' with the intent of intimidating and stopping her from exposing the abuses of the Eritrean regime against its own people.

The EPDP described the event in Rome as "a provocation" to Italy and Eritreans struggling for change and democracy in their country.

Addressed by the EPDP Foreign Relations Office, the memo to Italy made it clear that those who gather for such annual jamborees of YPFDJ include parents and relatives of the young persons who are "hostages of the dictatorship in Eritrea". They are forced to do so have a continued contact with the embassies in Europe and to safeguard their interests in Eritrea, it stated.

The memorandum finally urged the Italian Government to stop any cooperation with this PFDJ outfit of exploitation, control and intimidation.