Eritrea: Overseas Aid

(asked on 24th June 2020) - View Source

Question to the Department for International Development:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what measures are in place to ensure that Government-funded international development and aid programmes do not involve forced labour in Eritrea, with particular regard to indefinite military conscription.


Answered by
Baroness Sugg Portrait
Baroness Sugg
This question was answered on 3rd July 2020

UK Aid funds life-saving activity in Eritrea, including providing £4 million to UNICEF in 2019-20 to help treat malnutrition in under-fives and provide access to safe hygiene and sanitation services. UNICEF work with the Ministry of Health and at all levels of the local community to build the capacity of the health service in Eritrea and encourage a long-term, sustainable response to undernutrition. No military personnel are employed in the delivery of the programme and enhanced safeguards are in place to prevent the use of forced labour.

The UK continues to call for reform of Eritrea's use of a system of universal and compulsory national service directly with the Government of Eritrea. At the 41st session of the Human Rights Council in July 2019, the UK renewed calls for Eritrea to reform the national service system, recognising that sustainable reform of national service needs to happen in tandem with an improved economic situation and job creation.

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