Eritrean rights advocates on Wednesday sued the EU and asked it to halt 80 million euros (US$86.5 million) in aid to the east African nation, saying that the money funded a scheme built on forced labor.
The Netherlands-based foundation Human Rights for Eritreans (FHRE) filed a lawsuit in the Amsterdam District Court, accusing the EU of financing a major road renovation project that relies on forced labor and of failing to carry out due diligence.
Some of the laborers belong to the national service, condemned to forced labor and slavery by the UN and the European Parliament, lawyers backing the suit said.
The Netherlands is host to a large number of Eritrean migrants and pays toward the project as a member of the EU.
The EU last year said that it would monitor the work to ensure that laborers were paid and treated well.
Eritrean Minister of Information Yemane Ghebremeskel questioned the credibility of the FHRE, saying that the suit was typical of its “demonization campaigns.”
“The accusations emanate from a very small, but vocal group, mostly foreigners who have an agenda of ‘regime change’ against Eritrea,” he told reporters.
Eritrea signed a peace deal with Ethiopia in 2018, raising expectations that a longstanding system of universal conscription would be scaled back, but Human Rights Watch last year said that no changes had been made to a “system of repression.”
The Dutch law firm backing the lawsuit — Kennedy Van der Laan (KVDL) — said that it is seeking a court ruling that the roads project is unlawful and that the EU should cease supporting it.
“The EU has normalized and given an acceptable face to a practice which has been universally condemned by the international community and is a clear violation of the most fundamental human rights norms,” the firm said.
KVDL attorney Emiel Jurjens said that the FHRE raised the issue in April last year with the EU, which rejected its criticism before announcing further funding for the project in December.
Polish presidential candidates offered different visions of Poland and its relations with Ukraine in a televised debate ahead of next week’s run-off, which remains on a knife-edge. During a head-to-head debate lasting two hours, centrist Warsaw Mayor Rafal Trzaskowski, from Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s governing pro-European coalition, faced the Eurosceptic historian Karol Nawrocki, backed by the right-wing populist Law and Justice party (PiS). The two candidates, who qualified for the second round after coming in the top two places in the first vote on Sunday last week, clashed over Poland’s relations with Ukraine, EU policy and the track records of their
UNSCHEDULED VISIT: ‘It’s a very bulky new neighbor, but it will soon go away,’ said Johan Helberg of the 135m container ship that run aground near his house A man in Norway awoke early on Thursday to discover a huge container ship had run aground a stone’s throw from his fjord-side house — and he had slept through the commotion. For an as-yet unknown reason, the 135m NCL Salten sailed up onto shore just meters from Johan Helberg’s house in a fjord near Trondheim in central Norway. Helberg only discovered the unexpected visitor when a panicked neighbor who had rung his doorbell repeatedly to no avail gave up and called him on the phone. “The doorbell rang at a time of day when I don’t like to open,” Helberg told television
‘A THREAT’: Guyanese President Irfan Ali called on Venezuela to follow international court rulings over the region, whose border Guyana says was ratified back in 1899 Misael Zapara said he would vote in Venezuela’s first elections yesterday for the territory of Essequibo, despite living more than 100km away from the oil-rich Guyana-administered region. Both countries lay claim to Essequibo, which makes up two-thirds of Guyana’s territory and is home to 125,000 of its 800,000 citizens. Guyana has administered the region for decades. The centuries-old dispute has intensified since ExxonMobil discovered massive offshore oil deposits a decade ago, giving Guyana the largest crude oil reserves per capita in the world. Venezuela would elect a governor, eight National Assembly deputies and regional councilors in a newly created constituency for the 160,000
North Korea has detained another official over last week’s failed launch of a warship, which damaged the naval destroyer, state media reported yesterday. Pyongyang announced “a serious accident” at Wednesday last week’s launch ceremony, which crushed sections of the bottom of the new destroyer. North Korean leader Kim Jong-un called the mishap a “criminal act caused by absolute carelessness.” Ri Hyong-son, vice department director of the Munitions Industry Department of the Party Central Committee, was summoned and detained on Sunday, the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported. He was “greatly responsible for the occurrence of the serious accident,” it said. Ri is the fourth person