Mereja Forum

[QB]

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[Awash]

FesfasNews,,
Where have they been, busy cheering the tyrannical dictatorship and its draconian policies while enjoying the liberties and prosperity of life in the West.

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[Zmeselo]

We've been saying this for more than a decade, that after the weyane is eliminated & the threat from South of our borders is finally gone, we'll start pointing out internal shortcomings but never before & as a result give the MLLT baztards any open cracks or leeway to abuse. Solid unity, in the face of a treacherous & superpower supported- deadly enemy.

We're people of our word & now, here it is & more is to come!

Death, to the Meqele hotel residents!

[pushkin]

This is what the LOW IQ AGAMES LIKE AWASH don't like. We Eritreans will criticize and improve our Government & our services. They are fool to think criticizing as a crime just like the Agame land. As long as it is for the benefit of Eritreans it is a must and improving services refers not only a responsibility of few individuals but also all Eritreans.

We've been saying this for more than a decade, that after the weyane is eliminated & the threat from South of our borders is finally gone, we'll start pointing out internal shortcomings but never before & as a result give the MLLT baztards any open cracks or leeway to abuse. Solid unity, in the face of a treacherous & superpower supported- deadly enemy.

We're people of our word & now, here it is & more is to come!

Death, to the Meqele hotel residents!

[Temt]

We've been saying this for more than a decade, that after the weyane is eliminated & the threat from South of our borders is finally gone, we'll start pointing out internal shortcomings but never before & as a result give the MLLT baztards any open cracks or leeway to abuse. Solid unity, in the face of a treacherous & superpower supported- deadly enemy.

We're people of our word & now, here it is & more is to come!

Death, to the Meqele hotel residents!

We indeed are people of our word, and Weyanes and their cadres will always remain the most disdained people Eritreans have ever seen or met. Death to Weyanes and their followers!

[Merhano]

I really don't understand why people like QB and Awash are complaining about. Like that SOB Tamrat said, our airport looks like that of the one in Arsi, Ethiopia.
And we have to thank PIA and his cousins in Tigrai for this.
But I am confident in the coming 2 decades it will look like the airport in Bahirdar, Ethiopia. And on this endeavor, our Amhara friends like Yoni Magna, will help us to organize a "go fund our airport " project!

Believe me, Eritrea is in good hands! Nkhid Tray, Deki Ere!

[Awash]

Deqi komarit,
How are you going to do that? Through slave labor and foreign aid? Self reliance my foot. Your Agame tyrant functions with slave labor and foreign aid. No wonder nobody makes money in Eritrea except the Agame junta.

How Forced Labor in Eritrea Is Linked to E.U.-Funded Projects

As it aims to stem the flow of migrants from Africa and bring about change in a dictatorship, the European Union is spending millions on projects built by people in forced conscription.


A wooden boat used by mostly Eritrean migrants, abandoned off the Libyan coast after they were rescued in 2018.Credit...Santi Palacios/Associated Press

By Matina Stevis-Gridneff. Jan. 8, 2020, 3:00 a.m. ET

BRUSSELS — The European Union spent 20 million euros last year in Eritrea, hoping to help stem an exodus from the repressive African country, which is consistently one of its biggest sources of asylum seekers.

The money, about $22 million, bought equipment and materials to build a road, a seemingly uncontroversial task. The catch? Many workers on the construction site are forced conscripts, and the European Union has no real means of monitoring the project.

The decision caused outrage in human-rights circles. But that did not stop the bloc in December from deciding to give Eritrea tens of millions more, funding a system of forced conscription that the United Nations has described as “tantamount to enslavement.”

The additional aid, of €95 million, has not been previously reported, and is a jarring example of the quandary facing the European Union as it scrambles to drastically curb migration.

When it comes to Eritrea, a closed nation of about five million people in the Horn of Africa, the bloc has little real oversight of the projects it is funding, and it has decided not to make its aid conditional on guarantees of democratic reforms.

The money is part of a €4.6 billion European Union Trust Fund for Africa, a special fund created at the height of the refugee crisis in 2015 to “address the root causes of migration.”

You have 3 free articles remaining.Subscribe to The Times

While that plan is supported by a broad consensus, its execution has tarnished what many see as a worthy goal, even raising questions of whether it has become counterproductive.

The flow of asylum seekers out of Eritrea remains consistently high. At least 5,000 Eritreans have sought asylum in Europe every year in the past decade. In 2015 and 2016, the number peaked at over 30,000, and last year it was more than 10,000.

At least 80 percent of the requests were successful, according to Eurostat, the European Union statistics agency, meaning that European countries overwhelmingly consider Eritreans legitimate refugees.

European officials and migration experts believe that Eritreans will continue to arrive in the thousands, even as overall numbers of new migrants drop from mid-decade highs.

That drop is more to do with a crackdown at Europe’s Mediterranean borders, through agreements with Turkey and Libya, than with funding to Africa or the Middle East.

The European Union trust fund is a long-term approach, even as it has become an immediate part of the bloc’s thickening forward defense against migration as it tries to address it at its source in Africa.

Its endowment is being spent across the continent, with special focus on the countries that send the highest numbers of asylum seekers to Europe.

Since the trust was declared “emergency” funding, it is not subject to the stringent procurement and oversight demands that normally accompany European Union spending.

When it comes to Eritrea, European officials have switched to what they call “a dual-track approach” — talking with the government while also giving it money, irrespective of outcomes.

In all, €200 million from the fund is earmarked for Eritrea. The hope is that the money will help lift the local economy, create jobs, keep Eritreans at home and cement the peace agreement with its erstwhile enemy Ethiopia that was reached in mid-2018.

Overlooked or ignored in the calculation, the European Union’s critics say, is the appalling record of an Eritrean government that is considered one of the world’s worst human-rights abusers.

After a 30-year guerrilla war, Eritrea gained independence from Ethiopia in 1991. The two sides went to war again over their border, from 1998 to 2000, after Ethiopia refused to abide by an international ruling. Eritrea’s rebel-leader-turned-president, Isaias Afwerki, has maintained a state of emergency ever since.

As part of that state of emergency, a National Service program of mandatory, universal and indefinite conscription has remained in place, even after the 2018 peace agreement, a breakthrough that won Ethiopia’s leader the Nobel Peace Prize.

“Despite the peace agreement with Ethiopia, the human rights situation in Eritrea remains dire,” said Laetitia Bader, who covers the country and broader region for Human Rights Watch. “The government continues to conscript much of its population into indefinite national service and hold scores of political detainees in inhumane conditions.”

Eritreans are trapped within this system, and the country, since an exit visa is required to leave. Many remain conscripted into their 40s, doing civilian or military jobs for little pay.

Human-rights groups and the United Nations say that conscript work in Eritrea, which keeps the country running, amounts to forced labor. The United States has long suspended aid and development funding to the country.

The European Commission, the European Union’s executive branch, said that it had “been informed” by the government that conscripts would be used for its road project.

The details of how this project is set up show that it has been carefully designed to ensure that the European Union is not seen to be directly paying for conscripts to work on the construction site.

“The E.U. does not pay for labor under this project,” the European Commission said in written replies to questions from The New York Times. “The project only covers the procurement of material and equipment to support the rehabilitation of roads.”

The Commission, which has contracted the United Nations Office for Project Services to manage the project on its behalf, said that both it and the United Nations agency paid “particular attention to ensuring that minimum standards for health and safety of the workers involved in the road rehabilitation sites are ensured.”

But the agency does not have an office in Eritrea and says it is checking on the project through visits organized by the Eritrean government.

In response to questions, it said that it was not monitoring the work either, but rather that the Eritrean government was monitoring itself. The agency “is not monitoring the implementation of the project,” a spokesperson said. “The project is carried out by the government and progress is monitored by the Ministry of Public Works.”

Asked how many conscripts worked on the project and what their salaries were, the agency said it did “not have access to this information” — contradicting what the Commission has said about the level of detail provided to the agency.

Asked whether it saw a problem with facilitating a project that engages conscript labor in Eritrea, a practice denounced by other United Nations branches, the agency said that it “respects core U.N. principles, including the elimination of all forms of forced or compulsory labor,” but decided to proceed anyway.

The European Union’s change in approach to Eritrea is part of a broader coming in from the cold for the country, as world powers take an interest in the geopolitically crucial Horn of Africa and Eritrea’s long coastline along the Red Sea.

The United Arab Emirates in recent years set up a huge base on the Eritrean coast to support its war effort in Yemen directly across the water. The Red Sea is also a critical passage for ships carrying goods and oil to Europe through the Suez Canal.

Officials involved in shaping Europe’s Eritrea policy said that the bloc did not want to be left out of that unfolding “game,” which has become more active since the peace with Ethiopia and the subsequent lifting of longstanding United Nations sanctions against Eritrea over its links to regional armed groups.

“The rapprochement with Ethiopia and removal of U.N. sanctions allow the E.U. to try to foster development of Eritrea’s moribund economy and coax the government away from its repressive ways through engagement and patience,” said William Davison of the International Crisis Group, a research organization.

Mr. Afwerki has been remarkably successful in keeping control of the country without compromising or heeding calls to change.

Recently, however, the government has indicated that the National Service could be incrementally reduced once enough jobs open up to absorb the conscripts.

The European Union said it disapproved of Eritrea’s national service policy, despite the conscripts’ use of European-funded tools.

“The E.U. does not support indefinite national service in Eritrea and continues to push for reform to the national service through its reinforced political dialogue with the government,” the European Commission said.

“Human rights,” it added, “are at the core of all of the E.U.’s external actions.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/08/worl ... PqZled2HJ4

[Kuasmeda]

The Agame Rat! What is wrong of engaging at manual labour. Begging like your komata mom is a shame

Deqi komarit,
How are you going to do that? Through slave labor and foreign aid? Self reliance my foot. Your Agame tyrant functions with slave labor and foreign aid. No wonder nobody makes money in Eritrea except the Agame junta.

How Forced Labor in Eritrea Is Linked to E.U.-Funded Projects

As it aims to stem the flow of migrants from Africa and bring about change in a dictatorship, the European Union is spending millions on projects built by people in forced conscription.


A wooden boat used by mostly Eritrean migrants, abandoned off the Libyan coast after they were rescued in 2018.Credit...Santi Palacios/Associated Press

By Matina Stevis-Gridneff. Jan. 8, 2020, 3:00 a.m. ET

BRUSSELS — The European Union spent 20 million euros last year in Eritrea, hoping to help stem an exodus from the repressive African country, which is consistently one of its biggest sources of asylum seekers.

The money, about $22 million, bought equipment and materials to build a road, a seemingly uncontroversial task. The catch? Many workers on the construction site are forced conscripts, and the European Union has no real means of monitoring the project.

The decision caused outrage in human-rights circles. But that did not stop the bloc in December from deciding to give Eritrea tens of millions more, funding a system of forced conscription that the United Nations has described as “tantamount to enslavement.”

The additional aid, of €95 million, has not been previously reported, and is a jarring example of the quandary facing the European Union as it scrambles to drastically curb migration.

When it comes to Eritrea, a closed nation of about five million people in the Horn of Africa, the bloc has little real oversight of the projects it is funding, and it has decided not to make its aid conditional on guarantees of democratic reforms.

The money is part of a €4.6 billion European Union Trust Fund for Africa, a special fund created at the height of the refugee crisis in 2015 to “address the root causes of migration.”

You have 3 free articles remaining.Subscribe to The Times

While that plan is supported by a broad consensus, its execution has tarnished what many see as a worthy goal, even raising questions of whether it has become counterproductive.

The flow of asylum seekers out of Eritrea remains consistently high. At least 5,000 Eritreans have sought asylum in Europe every year in the past decade. In 2015 and 2016, the number peaked at over 30,000, and last year it was more than 10,000.

At least 80 percent of the requests were successful, according to Eurostat, the European Union statistics agency, meaning that European countries overwhelmingly consider Eritreans legitimate refugees.

European officials and migration experts believe that Eritreans will continue to arrive in the thousands, even as overall numbers of new migrants drop from mid-decade highs.

That drop is more to do with a crackdown at Europe’s Mediterranean borders, through agreements with Turkey and Libya, than with funding to Africa or the Middle East.

The European Union trust fund is a long-term approach, even as it has become an immediate part of the bloc’s thickening forward defense against migration as it tries to address it at its source in Africa.

Its endowment is being spent across the continent, with special focus on the countries that send the highest numbers of asylum seekers to Europe.

Since the trust was declared “emergency” funding, it is not subject to the stringent procurement and oversight demands that normally accompany European Union spending.

When it comes to Eritrea, European officials have switched to what they call “a dual-track approach” — talking with the government while also giving it money, irrespective of outcomes.

In all, €200 million from the fund is earmarked for Eritrea. The hope is that the money will help lift the local economy, create jobs, keep Eritreans at home and cement the peace agreement with its erstwhile enemy Ethiopia that was reached in mid-2018.

Overlooked or ignored in the calculation, the European Union’s critics say, is the appalling record of an Eritrean government that is considered one of the world’s worst human-rights abusers.

After a 30-year guerrilla war, Eritrea gained independence from Ethiopia in 1991. The two sides went to war again over their border, from 1998 to 2000, after Ethiopia refused to abide by an international ruling. Eritrea’s rebel-leader-turned-president, Isaias Afwerki, has maintained a state of emergency ever since.

As part of that state of emergency, a National Service program of mandatory, universal and indefinite conscription has remained in place, even after the 2018 peace agreement, a breakthrough that won Ethiopia’s leader the Nobel Peace Prize.

“Despite the peace agreement with Ethiopia, the human rights situation in Eritrea remains dire,” said Laetitia Bader, who covers the country and broader region for Human Rights Watch. “The government continues to conscript much of its population into indefinite national service and hold scores of political detainees in inhumane conditions.”

Eritreans are trapped within this system, and the country, since an exit visa is required to leave. Many remain conscripted into their 40s, doing civilian or military jobs for little pay.

Human-rights groups and the United Nations say that conscript work in Eritrea, which keeps the country running, amounts to forced labor. The United States has long suspended aid and development funding to the country.

The European Commission, the European Union’s executive branch, said that it had “been informed” by the government that conscripts would be used for its road project.

The details of how this project is set up show that it has been carefully designed to ensure that the European Union is not seen to be directly paying for conscripts to work on the construction site.

“The E.U. does not pay for labor under this project,” the European Commission said in written replies to questions from The New York Times. “The project only covers the procurement of material and equipment to support the rehabilitation of roads.”

The Commission, which has contracted the United Nations Office for Project Services to manage the project on its behalf, said that both it and the United Nations agency paid “particular attention to ensuring that minimum standards for health and safety of the workers involved in the road rehabilitation sites are ensured.”

But the agency does not have an office in Eritrea and says it is checking on the project through visits organized by the Eritrean government.

In response to questions, it said that it was not monitoring the work either, but rather that the Eritrean government was monitoring itself. The agency “is not monitoring the implementation of the project,” a spokesperson said. “The project is carried out by the government and progress is monitored by the Ministry of Public Works.”

Asked how many conscripts worked on the project and what their salaries were, the agency said it did “not have access to this information” — contradicting what the Commission has said about the level of detail provided to the agency.

Asked whether it saw a problem with facilitating a project that engages conscript labor in Eritrea, a practice denounced by other United Nations branches, the agency said that it “respects core U.N. principles, including the elimination of all forms of forced or compulsory labor,” but decided to proceed anyway.

The European Union’s change in approach to Eritrea is part of a broader coming in from the cold for the country, as world powers take an interest in the geopolitically crucial Horn of Africa and Eritrea’s long coastline along the Red Sea.

The United Arab Emirates in recent years set up a huge base on the Eritrean coast to support its war effort in Yemen directly across the water. The Red Sea is also a critical passage for ships carrying goods and oil to Europe through the Suez Canal.

Officials involved in shaping Europe’s Eritrea policy said that the bloc did not want to be left out of that unfolding “game,” which has become more active since the peace with Ethiopia and the subsequent lifting of longstanding United Nations sanctions against Eritrea over its links to regional armed groups.

“The rapprochement with Ethiopia and removal of U.N. sanctions allow the E.U. to try to foster development of Eritrea’s moribund economy and coax the government away from its repressive ways through engagement and patience,” said William Davison of the International Crisis Group, a research organization.

Mr. Afwerki has been remarkably successful in keeping control of the country without compromising or heeding calls to change.

Recently, however, the government has indicated that the National Service could be incrementally reduced once enough jobs open up to absorb the conscripts.

The European Union said it disapproved of Eritrea’s national service policy, despite the conscripts’ use of European-funded tools.

“The E.U. does not support indefinite national service in Eritrea and continues to push for reform to the national service through its reinforced political dialogue with the government,” the European Commission said.

“Human rights,” it added, “are at the core of all of the E.U.’s external actions.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/08/worl ... PqZled2HJ4

[Awash]

Fessmedda aka bushtin,
You see, like Negera told the Ethiopian people, these laborers should have been in college, studying. But, your Agame junta doesn't want the Eritrean people to be educated. That's what your tyrant has been working on for 30 years: a weak, uneducated, underdeveloped Eritrea.

The Agame Rat! What is wrong of engaging at manual labour. Begging like your komata mom is a shame

Deqi komarit,
How are you going to do that? Through slave labor and foreign aid? Self reliance my foot. Your Agame tyrant functions with slave labor and foreign aid. No wonder nobody makes money in Eritrea except the Agame junta.

How Forced Labor in Eritrea Is Linked to E.U.-Funded Projects

As it aims to stem the flow of migrants from Africa and bring about change in a dictatorship, the European Union is spending millions on projects built by people in forced conscription.


A wooden boat used by mostly Eritrean migrants, abandoned off the Libyan coast after they were rescued in 2018.Credit...Santi Palacios/Associated Press

By Matina Stevis-Gridneff. Jan. 8, 2020, 3:00 a.m. ET

BRUSSELS — The European Union spent 20 million euros last year in Eritrea, hoping to help stem an exodus from the repressive African country, which is consistently one of its biggest sources of asylum seekers.

The money, about $22 million, bought equipment and materials to build a road, a seemingly uncontroversial task. The catch? Many workers on the construction site are forced conscripts, and the European Union has no real means of monitoring the project.

The decision caused outrage in human-rights circles. But that did not stop the bloc in December from deciding to give Eritrea tens of millions more, funding a system of forced conscription that the United Nations has described as “tantamount to enslavement.”

The additional aid, of €95 million, has not been previously reported, and is a jarring example of the quandary facing the European Union as it scrambles to drastically curb migration.

When it comes to Eritrea, a closed nation of about five million people in the Horn of Africa, the bloc has little real oversight of the projects it is funding, and it has decided not to make its aid conditional on guarantees of democratic reforms.

The money is part of a €4.6 billion European Union Trust Fund for Africa, a special fund created at the height of the refugee crisis in 2015 to “address the root causes of migration.”

You have 3 free articles remaining.Subscribe to The Times

While that plan is supported by a broad consensus, its execution has tarnished what many see as a worthy goal, even raising questions of whether it has become counterproductive.

The flow of asylum seekers out of Eritrea remains consistently high. At least 5,000 Eritreans have sought asylum in Europe every year in the past decade. In 2015 and 2016, the number peaked at over 30,000, and last year it was more than 10,000.

At least 80 percent of the requests were successful, according to Eurostat, the European Union statistics agency, meaning that European countries overwhelmingly consider Eritreans legitimate refugees.

European officials and migration experts believe that Eritreans will continue to arrive in the thousands, even as overall numbers of new migrants drop from mid-decade highs.

That drop is more to do with a crackdown at Europe’s Mediterranean borders, through agreements with Turkey and Libya, than with funding to Africa or the Middle East.

The European Union trust fund is a long-term approach, even as it has become an immediate part of the bloc’s thickening forward defense against migration as it tries to address it at its source in Africa.

Its endowment is being spent across the continent, with special focus on the countries that send the highest numbers of asylum seekers to Europe.

Since the trust was declared “emergency” funding, it is not subject to the stringent procurement and oversight demands that normally accompany European Union spending.

When it comes to Eritrea, European officials have switched to what they call “a dual-track approach” — talking with the government while also giving it money, irrespective of outcomes.

In all, €200 million from the fund is earmarked for Eritrea. The hope is that the money will help lift the local economy, create jobs, keep Eritreans at home and cement the peace agreement with its erstwhile enemy Ethiopia that was reached in mid-2018.

Overlooked or ignored in the calculation, the European Union’s critics say, is the appalling record of an Eritrean government that is considered one of the world’s worst human-rights abusers.

After a 30-year guerrilla war, Eritrea gained independence from Ethiopia in 1991. The two sides went to war again over their border, from 1998 to 2000, after Ethiopia refused to abide by an international ruling. Eritrea’s rebel-leader-turned-president, Isaias Afwerki, has maintained a state of emergency ever since.

As part of that state of emergency, a National Service program of mandatory, universal and indefinite conscription has remained in place, even after the 2018 peace agreement, a breakthrough that won Ethiopia’s leader the Nobel Peace Prize.

“Despite the peace agreement with Ethiopia, the human rights situation in Eritrea remains dire,” said Laetitia Bader, who covers the country and broader region for Human Rights Watch. “The government continues to conscript much of its population into indefinite national service and hold scores of political detainees in inhumane conditions.”

Eritreans are trapped within this system, and the country, since an exit visa is required to leave. Many remain conscripted into their 40s, doing civilian or military jobs for little pay.

Human-rights groups and the United Nations say that conscript work in Eritrea, which keeps the country running, amounts to forced labor. The United States has long suspended aid and development funding to the country.

The European Commission, the European Union’s executive branch, said that it had “been informed” by the government that conscripts would be used for its road project.

The details of how this project is set up show that it has been carefully designed to ensure that the European Union is not seen to be directly paying for conscripts to work on the construction site.

“The E.U. does not pay for labor under this project,” the European Commission said in written replies to questions from The New York Times. “The project only covers the procurement of material and equipment to support the rehabilitation of roads.”

The Commission, which has contracted the United Nations Office for Project Services to manage the project on its behalf, said that both it and the United Nations agency paid “particular attention to ensuring that minimum standards for health and safety of the workers involved in the road rehabilitation sites are ensured.”

But the agency does not have an office in Eritrea and says it is checking on the project through visits organized by the Eritrean government.

In response to questions, it said that it was not monitoring the work either, but rather that the Eritrean government was monitoring itself. The agency “is not monitoring the implementation of the project,” a spokesperson said. “The project is carried out by the government and progress is monitored by the Ministry of Public Works.”

Asked how many conscripts worked on the project and what their salaries were, the agency said it did “not have access to this information” — contradicting what the Commission has said about the level of detail provided to the agency.

Asked whether it saw a problem with facilitating a project that engages conscript labor in Eritrea, a practice denounced by other United Nations branches, the agency said that it “respects core U.N. principles, including the elimination of all forms of forced or compulsory labor,” but decided to proceed anyway.

The European Union’s change in approach to Eritrea is part of a broader coming in from the cold for the country, as world powers take an interest in the geopolitically crucial Horn of Africa and Eritrea’s long coastline along the Red Sea.

The United Arab Emirates in recent years set up a huge base on the Eritrean coast to support its war effort in Yemen directly across the water. The Red Sea is also a critical passage for ships carrying goods and oil to Europe through the Suez Canal.

Officials involved in shaping Europe’s Eritrea policy said that the bloc did not want to be left out of that unfolding “game,” which has become more active since the peace with Ethiopia and the subsequent lifting of longstanding United Nations sanctions against Eritrea over its links to regional armed groups.

“The rapprochement with Ethiopia and removal of U.N. sanctions allow the E.U. to try to foster development of Eritrea’s moribund economy and coax the government away from its repressive ways through engagement and patience,” said William Davison of the International Crisis Group, a research organization.

Mr. Afwerki has been remarkably successful in keeping control of the country without compromising or heeding calls to change.

Recently, however, the government has indicated that the National Service could be incrementally reduced once enough jobs open up to absorb the conscripts.

The European Union said it disapproved of Eritrea’s national service policy, despite the conscripts’ use of European-funded tools.

“The E.U. does not support indefinite national service in Eritrea and continues to push for reform to the national service through its reinforced political dialogue with the government,” the European Commission said.

“Human rights,” it added, “are at the core of all of the E.U.’s external actions.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/08/worl ... PqZled2HJ4

[Zmeselo]

The wùsha, has found himself a new god. A donkey called: niggera.

Fessmedda aka [deleted],
You see, like Negera told the Ethiopian people, these laborers should have been in college, studying. But, your Agame junta doesn't want the Eritrean people to be educated. That's what your tyrant has been working on for 30 years: a weak, uneducated, underdeveloped Eritrea.

The Agame Rat! What is wrong of engaging at manual labour. Begging like your komata mom is a shame

Deqi komarit,
How are you going to do that? Through slave labor and foreign aid? Self reliance my foot. Your Agame tyrant functions with slave labor and foreign aid. No wonder nobody makes money in Eritrea except the Agame junta.

How Forced Labor in Eritrea Is Linked to E.U.-Funded Projects

As it aims to stem the flow of migrants from Africa and bring about change in a dictatorship, the European Union is spending millions on projects built by people in forced conscription.


A wooden boat used by mostly Eritrean migrants, abandoned off the Libyan coast after they were rescued in 2018.Credit...Santi Palacios/Associated Press

By Matina Stevis-Gridneff. Jan. 8, 2020, 3:00 a.m. ET

BRUSSELS — The European Union spent 20 million euros last year in Eritrea, hoping to help stem an exodus from the repressive African country, which is consistently one of its biggest sources of asylum seekers.

The money, about $22 million, bought equipment and materials to build a road, a seemingly uncontroversial task. The catch? Many workers on the construction site are forced conscripts, and the European Union has no real means of monitoring the project.

The decision caused outrage in human-rights circles. But that did not stop the bloc in December from deciding to give Eritrea tens of millions more, funding a system of forced conscription that the United Nations has described as “tantamount to enslavement.”

The additional aid, of €95 million, has not been previously reported, and is a jarring example of the quandary facing the European Union as it scrambles to drastically curb migration.

When it comes to Eritrea, a closed nation of about five million people in the Horn of Africa, the bloc has little real oversight of the projects it is funding, and it has decided not to make its aid conditional on guarantees of democratic reforms.

The money is part of a €4.6 billion European Union Trust Fund for Africa, a special fund created at the height of the refugee crisis in 2015 to “address the root causes of migration.”

You have 3 free articles remaining.Subscribe to The Times

While that plan is supported by a broad consensus, its execution has tarnished what many see as a worthy goal, even raising questions of whether it has become counterproductive.

The flow of asylum seekers out of Eritrea remains consistently high. At least 5,000 Eritreans have sought asylum in Europe every year in the past decade. In 2015 and 2016, the number peaked at over 30,000, and last year it was more than 10,000.

At least 80 percent of the requests were successful, according to Eurostat, the European Union statistics agency, meaning that European countries overwhelmingly consider Eritreans legitimate refugees.

European officials and migration experts believe that Eritreans will continue to arrive in the thousands, even as overall numbers of new migrants drop from mid-decade highs.

That drop is more to do with a crackdown at Europe’s Mediterranean borders, through agreements with Turkey and Libya, than with funding to Africa or the Middle East.

The European Union trust fund is a long-term approach, even as it has become an immediate part of the bloc’s thickening forward defense against migration as it tries to address it at its source in Africa.

Its endowment is being spent across the continent, with special focus on the countries that send the highest numbers of asylum seekers to Europe.

Since the trust was declared “emergency” funding, it is not subject to the stringent procurement and oversight demands that normally accompany European Union spending.

When it comes to Eritrea, European officials have switched to what they call “a dual-track approach” — talking with the government while also giving it money, irrespective of outcomes.

In all, €200 million from the fund is earmarked for Eritrea. The hope is that the money will help lift the local economy, create jobs, keep Eritreans at home and cement the peace agreement with its erstwhile enemy Ethiopia that was reached in mid-2018.

Overlooked or ignored in the calculation, the European Union’s critics say, is the appalling record of an Eritrean government that is considered one of the world’s worst human-rights abusers.

After a 30-year guerrilla war, Eritrea gained independence from Ethiopia in 1991. The two sides went to war again over their border, from 1998 to 2000, after Ethiopia refused to abide by an international ruling. Eritrea’s rebel-leader-turned-president, Isaias Afwerki, has maintained a state of emergency ever since.

As part of that state of emergency, a National Service program of mandatory, universal and indefinite conscription has remained in place, even after the 2018 peace agreement, a breakthrough that won Ethiopia’s leader the Nobel Peace Prize.

“Despite the peace agreement with Ethiopia, the human rights situation in Eritrea remains dire,” said Laetitia Bader, who covers the country and broader region for Human Rights Watch. “The government continues to conscript much of its population into indefinite national service and hold scores of political detainees in inhumane conditions.”

Eritreans are trapped within this system, and the country, since an exit visa is required to leave. Many remain conscripted into their 40s, doing civilian or military jobs for little pay.

Human-rights groups and the United Nations say that conscript work in Eritrea, which keeps the country running, amounts to forced labor. The United States has long suspended aid and development funding to the country.

The European Commission, the European Union’s executive branch, said that it had “been informed” by the government that conscripts would be used for its road project.

The details of how this project is set up show that it has been carefully designed to ensure that the European Union is not seen to be directly paying for conscripts to work on the construction site.

“The E.U. does not pay for labor under this project,” the European Commission said in written replies to questions from The New York Times. “The project only covers the procurement of material and equipment to support the rehabilitation of roads.”

The Commission, which has contracted the United Nations Office for Project Services to manage the project on its behalf, said that both it and the United Nations agency paid “particular attention to ensuring that minimum standards for health and safety of the workers involved in the road rehabilitation sites are ensured.”

But the agency does not have an office in Eritrea and says it is checking on the project through visits organized by the Eritrean government.

In response to questions, it said that it was not monitoring the work either, but rather that the Eritrean government was monitoring itself. The agency “is not monitoring the implementation of the project,” a spokesperson said. “The project is carried out by the government and progress is monitored by the Ministry of Public Works.”

Asked how many conscripts worked on the project and what their salaries were, the agency said it did “not have access to this information” — contradicting what the Commission has said about the level of detail provided to the agency.

Asked whether it saw a problem with facilitating a project that engages conscript labor in Eritrea, a practice denounced by other United Nations branches, the agency said that it “respects core U.N. principles, including the elimination of all forms of forced or compulsory labor,” but decided to proceed anyway.

The European Union’s change in approach to Eritrea is part of a broader coming in from the cold for the country, as world powers take an interest in the geopolitically crucial Horn of Africa and Eritrea’s long coastline along the Red Sea.

The United Arab Emirates in recent years set up a huge base on the Eritrean coast to support its war effort in Yemen directly across the water. The Red Sea is also a critical passage for ships carrying goods and oil to Europe through the Suez Canal.

Officials involved in shaping Europe’s Eritrea policy said that the bloc did not want to be left out of that unfolding “game,” which has become more active since the peace with Ethiopia and the subsequent lifting of longstanding United Nations sanctions against Eritrea over its links to regional armed groups.

“The rapprochement with Ethiopia and removal of U.N. sanctions allow the E.U. to try to foster development of Eritrea’s moribund economy and coax the government away from its repressive ways through engagement and patience,” said William Davison of the International Crisis Group, a research organization.

Mr. Afwerki has been remarkably successful in keeping control of the country without compromising or heeding calls to change.

Recently, however, the government has indicated that the National Service could be incrementally reduced once enough jobs open up to absorb the conscripts.

The European Union said it disapproved of Eritrea’s national service policy, despite the conscripts’ use of European-funded tools.

“The E.U. does not support indefinite national service in Eritrea and continues to push for reform to the national service through its reinforced political dialogue with the government,” the European Commission said.

“Human rights,” it added, “are at the core of all of the E.U.’s external actions.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/08/worl ... PqZled2HJ4

[Kuasmeda]

Wedi Atarit ASWUSHA! As an Agame, you don't have any information regarding Eritrea! The graduates in the Agame land work in kobl stones or shoe shines forever. As far as Eritrea is concerned, all graduates or undergraduates & the military do ever job as long as we are doing the national service. Through this approach, we are building our nation. Understood, Aswusha fandia

Fessmedda aka [deleted],
You see, like Negera told the Ethiopian people, these laborers should have been in college, studying. But, your Agame junta doesn't want the Eritrean people to be educated. That's what your tyrant has been working on for 30 years: a weak, uneducated, underdeveloped Eritrea.

The Agame Rat! What is wrong of engaging at manual labour. Begging like your komata mom is a shame

Deqi komarit,
How are you going to do that? Through slave labor and foreign aid? Self reliance my foot. Your Agame tyrant functions with slave labor and foreign aid. No wonder nobody makes money in Eritrea except the Agame junta.

How Forced Labor in Eritrea Is Linked to E.U.-Funded Projects

As it aims to stem the flow of migrants from Africa and bring about change in a dictatorship, the European Union is spending millions on projects built by people in forced conscription.


A wooden boat used by mostly Eritrean migrants, abandoned off the Libyan coast after they were rescued in 2018.Credit...Santi Palacios/Associated Press

By Matina Stevis-Gridneff. Jan. 8, 2020, 3:00 a.m. ET

BRUSSELS — The European Union spent 20 million euros last year in Eritrea, hoping to help stem an exodus from the repressive African country, which is consistently one of its biggest sources of asylum seekers.

The money, about $22 million, bought equipment and materials to build a road, a seemingly uncontroversial task. The catch? Many workers on the construction site are forced conscripts, and the European Union has no real means of monitoring the project.

The decision caused outrage in human-rights circles. But that did not stop the bloc in December from deciding to give Eritrea tens of millions more, funding a system of forced conscription that the United Nations has described as “tantamount to enslavement.”

The additional aid, of €95 million, has not been previously reported, and is a jarring example of the quandary facing the European Union as it scrambles to drastically curb migration.

When it comes to Eritrea, a closed nation of about five million people in the Horn of Africa, the bloc has little real oversight of the projects it is funding, and it has decided not to make its aid conditional on guarantees of democratic reforms.

The money is part of a €4.6 billion European Union Trust Fund for Africa, a special fund created at the height of the refugee crisis in 2015 to “address the root causes of migration.”

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While that plan is supported by a broad consensus, its execution has tarnished what many see as a worthy goal, even raising questions of whether it has become counterproductive.

The flow of asylum seekers out of Eritrea remains consistently high. At least 5,000 Eritreans have sought asylum in Europe every year in the past decade. In 2015 and 2016, the number peaked at over 30,000, and last year it was more than 10,000.

At least 80 percent of the requests were successful, according to Eurostat, the European Union statistics agency, meaning that European countries overwhelmingly consider Eritreans legitimate refugees.

European officials and migration experts believe that Eritreans will continue to arrive in the thousands, even as overall numbers of new migrants drop from mid-decade highs.

That drop is more to do with a crackdown at Europe’s Mediterranean borders, through agreements with Turkey and Libya, than with funding to Africa or the Middle East.

The European Union trust fund is a long-term approach, even as it has become an immediate part of the bloc’s thickening forward defense against migration as it tries to address it at its source in Africa.

Its endowment is being spent across the continent, with special focus on the countries that send the highest numbers of asylum seekers to Europe.

Since the trust was declared “emergency” funding, it is not subject to the stringent procurement and oversight demands that normally accompany European Union spending.

When it comes to Eritrea, European officials have switched to what they call “a dual-track approach” — talking with the government while also giving it money, irrespective of outcomes.

In all, €200 million from the fund is earmarked for Eritrea. The hope is that the money will help lift the local economy, create jobs, keep Eritreans at home and cement the peace agreement with its erstwhile enemy Ethiopia that was reached in mid-2018.

Overlooked or ignored in the calculation, the European Union’s critics say, is the appalling record of an Eritrean government that is considered one of the world’s worst human-rights abusers.

After a 30-year guerrilla war, Eritrea gained independence from Ethiopia in 1991. The two sides went to war again over their border, from 1998 to 2000, after Ethiopia refused to abide by an international ruling. Eritrea’s rebel-leader-turned-president, Isaias Afwerki, has maintained a state of emergency ever since.

As part of that state of emergency, a National Service program of mandatory, universal and indefinite conscription has remained in place, even after the 2018 peace agreement, a breakthrough that won Ethiopia’s leader the Nobel Peace Prize.

“Despite the peace agreement with Ethiopia, the human rights situation in Eritrea remains dire,” said Laetitia Bader, who covers the country and broader region for Human Rights Watch. “The government continues to conscript much of its population into indefinite national service and hold scores of political detainees in inhumane conditions.”

Eritreans are trapped within this system, and the country, since an exit visa is required to leave. Many remain conscripted into their 40s, doing civilian or military jobs for little pay.

Human-rights groups and the United Nations say that conscript work in Eritrea, which keeps the country running, amounts to forced labor. The United States has long suspended aid and development funding to the country.

The European Commission, the European Union’s executive branch, said that it had “been informed” by the government that conscripts would be used for its road project.

The details of how this project is set up show that it has been carefully designed to ensure that the European Union is not seen to be directly paying for conscripts to work on the construction site.

“The E.U. does not pay for labor under this project,” the European Commission said in written replies to questions from The New York Times. “The project only covers the procurement of material and equipment to support the rehabilitation of roads.”

The Commission, which has contracted the United Nations Office for Project Services to manage the project on its behalf, said that both it and the United Nations agency paid “particular attention to ensuring that minimum standards for health and safety of the workers involved in the road rehabilitation sites are ensured.”

But the agency does not have an office in Eritrea and says it is checking on the project through visits organized by the Eritrean government.

In response to questions, it said that it was not monitoring the work either, but rather that the Eritrean government was monitoring itself. The agency “is not monitoring the implementation of the project,” a spokesperson said. “The project is carried out by the government and progress is monitored by the Ministry of Public Works.”

Asked how many conscripts worked on the project and what their salaries were, the agency said it did “not have access to this information” — contradicting what the Commission has said about the level of detail provided to the agency.

Asked whether it saw a problem with facilitating a project that engages conscript labor in Eritrea, a practice denounced by other United Nations branches, the agency said that it “respects core U.N. principles, including the elimination of all forms of forced or compulsory labor,” but decided to proceed anyway.

The European Union’s change in approach to Eritrea is part of a broader coming in from the cold for the country, as world powers take an interest in the geopolitically crucial Horn of Africa and Eritrea’s long coastline along the Red Sea.

The United Arab Emirates in recent years set up a huge base on the Eritrean coast to support its war effort in Yemen directly across the water. The Red Sea is also a critical passage for ships carrying goods and oil to Europe through the Suez Canal.

Officials involved in shaping Europe’s Eritrea policy said that the bloc did not want to be left out of that unfolding “game,” which has become more active since the peace with Ethiopia and the subsequent lifting of longstanding United Nations sanctions against Eritrea over its links to regional armed groups.

“The rapprochement with Ethiopia and removal of U.N. sanctions allow the E.U. to try to foster development of Eritrea’s moribund economy and coax the government away from its repressive ways through engagement and patience,” said William Davison of the International Crisis Group, a research organization.

Mr. Afwerki has been remarkably successful in keeping control of the country without compromising or heeding calls to change.

Recently, however, the government has indicated that the National Service could be incrementally reduced once enough jobs open up to absorb the conscripts.

The European Union said it disapproved of Eritrea’s national service policy, despite the conscripts’ use of European-funded tools.

“The E.U. does not support indefinite national service in Eritrea and continues to push for reform to the national service through its reinforced political dialogue with the government,” the European Commission said.

“Human rights,” it added, “are at the core of all of the E.U.’s external actions.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/08/worl ... PqZled2HJ4

[Merhano]

I agree with you, Awash. The problem is, if you educate the peasants in Eritrea, they will start to ask for their rights. And this will create a bigger problem than the Woyane and Tamrat Negera combined.
So please be patient with us until we get ourselves in a better position, so that we change a gear and make a "great leap forward " like the Chinese!
What do you think, Awash?

[Awash]

Fessmedda, zombie and all ugum stooges aka deqi komarit:
Listen to the Real Eritrean and don't try to suffocate him like the others.

Watch "Response to Teamrat Ngru's Interview" on YouTube

[Merhano]

This guy, Tamrat, does not like to play fair! Why is he always punching us below the belt!
The good thing is, we, the PFDJ supporters, don't have anything below the belt and he is tiring for nothing!

Some people say, Tamrat is Awash himself! We're in trouble here!
Where's Digital Woyane, when you need him?

[Awash]

Very witty. I like your sense of humor.

This guy, Tamrat, does not like to play fair! Why is he always punching us below the belt!
The good thing is, we, the PFDJ supporters, don't have anything below the belt and he is tiring for nothing!

Some people say, Tamrat is Awash himself! We're in trouble here!
Where's Digital Woyane, when you need him?

[Zmeselo]

Why not try us then, without Ethiopian 'fenjregatch' & superpower support?

Eza baria xegebet, ktdefreni qerebet!

Tamrat, is maybe asswash. What we've been saying, all along. This pretending snake is NOT eritrean!!!!!

This guy, Tamrat, does not like to play fair! Why is he always punching us below the belt!
The good thing is, we, the PFDJ supporters, don't have anything below the belt and he is tiring for nothing!

Some people say, Tamrat is Awash himself! We're in trouble here!
Where's Digital Woyane, when you need him?

[Awash]

Zombie,
Haven't you had enough of 30 years of stupidity that destroyed 2 generation of Eritrean youth: the future of Eritrea? Of course not, you are busy worshipping an Agame junta that has treated the Eritrean people worse than Mussolini and Menghistu combined. Metal-shipping containers, underground cells unheard of during the Ethiopian occupation of cooking Eritreans alive through slow agonizing death. No wonder the youth fled and continue to flee by the thousands every month.

[Awash]

[Zmeselo]

That's actually, what you want to do. The problem is, who'se gonna do it for you? No fenjregatch- no fried Rice.

Stop crying crock- tears, mininu!

Zombie,
Haven't you had enough of 30 years of stupidity that destroyed 2 generation of Eritrean youth: the future of Eritrea? Of course not, you are busy worshipping an Agame junta that has treated the Eritrean people worse than Mussolini and Menghistu combined. Metal-shipping containers, underground cells unheard of during the Ethiopian occupation of cooking Eritreans alive through slow agonizing death. No wonder the youth fled and continue to flee by the thousands every month.

[Awash]

Zombie,
You and your Agame tyrant want to celebrate while Eritrea and the Eritrean people perish. Fessfass deqi komarit.