IBTimes UK reporter Gianluca Mezzofiore obtains documents showing Eritrean government collects illegal tax in violation of UN and Foreign Office
Eritreans living in the UK
are being forced by their own government to pay a “diaspora tax” that
ultimately funds the secretive country’s network of influence in the Horn of Africa, including supporting the al-Shabaab group of militants in Somalia, an IBTimes UK special investigation has uncovered.
The UN Security Council hardened sanctions against Eritrea in December 2011 over its alleged support for Islamist militant groups such as Somalia’s al-Shabaab.
he Foreign Office in Whitehall had earlier sought to curb Eritrean diplomats who were collecting the tax in the UK after claiming that the money was used by the Eritrean government to destablise the region.
On 20 May 2011, the Eritrean ambassador in London was informed that
the collection of the diaspora tax levied on Eritreans might be
unlawful and breach the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations. The
Foreign Office told the ambassador to stop all activities relating to
its collection.
However, documents obtained by IBTimes UK and redacted to protect the identity of the source, show that the practice still happens in Britain.
The 2 per cent tax
Several Eritreans have described the tax as a “consular
service” for any citizen wishing to renew their passport or Eritrean
holders of foreign passports requesting a visa to visit Eritrea. Every
Eritrean must produce documentation of the tax payments they made in
their host country and on this basis the 2% tax is calculated.
“Many people do not pay it voluntarily, but if you have any
needs of service from the embassy eg, you want to send home the body of
a relative who died, your family needs to renew a trade licence or you
simply want a visa for your British-born child to visit Eritrea, you are
asked to prove that you have fulfilled your obligations,” Selam Kidane,
an Eritrean living in the UK, said.
The first document seen by IBTimes UK is a transfer order slip dated 2012 from a British bank to the Housing & Commerce Bank of Eritrea in the capital of Asmara for further credit to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
It belongs to Eden (not her real name) who was forced to
pay the diaspora tax after authorities threatened her parents in Asmara
that their family business licence would not be renewed.
“If it wasn’t for my mum I wouldn’t have paid,” Eden, a
British citizen, said. “I have always refused to do that and delay the
payment since I got in the UK.”
Even those like Eden who have not required consular services for several years are required to pay “arrears” for the years in which the tax was not paid.The alternative for Eden’s parents, if she had not paid,
would be to sign a letter in which they stated she was no longer their
daughter, which would effectively disinhereit her.A well-placed source told IBTimes UK: “The problem
is not with the diaspora tax as such, although that can be frustrating.
The key feature is the message by which it can be taken from the people.
It is more nuanced than Nazi Germany. It’s corruption and use of social
pressure.”
Among the “national obligations payments” made by Eden are
the recovery tax, which is the 2% diaspora tax, and the Hzbawi Mekhete,
which in the Tigrigna language means “national defence” and is a fee that funds the army.
While the 2 per cent tax is negotiable, the “national defence” fee is not,IBTimes UK understands.
“I had to struggle to pay this money. I feel so terrible, I had to borrow money
from friends and a charity in order to pay,” Eden said. “I disagree
with paying this tax. I consider tax a ransom on me. I feel so
horrible.”
The second document (shown below) is a confirmation of
Eden’s payment made from London by the Eritrean Ministry of Foreign
Affairs.
Victory to the Masses!
Berhane Yemane
Head of Mission Accounts”
The North Korea of Africa
Dubbed the North Korea of Africa,
Eritrea is considered one of the continent’s most opaque countries.
National elections have not been held since it gained independence in
1993. The country is governed by the one-party authoritarian rule of President Isaias Afewerki, who has been in power for 20 years.
Torture, arbitrary detention and severe restrictions on freedom of expression are routine. Mandatory military service imposed
on all men and women between 18 and 55 is one of the main causes of
flight from the country. It has been calculated that 4,000 Eritreans
leave the country every month and, according to a 2008 estimate, 40,000
Eritreans live in Britain.
Advocacy group Reporters without Borders has ranked Eritrea bottom of a list of 179 countries on freedom of expression.
Access for international humanitarian and human rights organisations is
almost impossible and the country has no independent media.
The Foreign Office told IBTimes UK: “We are aware of allegations over the use of harassment to collect revenue from members of the Eritrean diaspora in the UK.
“On 20 December, 2012, FCO officials raised these concerns
with the Eritrean ambassador and reminded him of UN Security Council
resolution 2023. [The UK supports the resolution] which condemned
Eritrea’s use of the diaspora tax to destabilise the Horn of Africa region and decided that Eritrea should cease using illicit means to collect the tax,” the spokesperson said.
IBTimes UK contacted the Eritrean embassy but it has not responded to any questions about the tax.
Canada expels Eritrean diplomat
In May, the Canadian government expelled an Eritrean envoy over allegations that he had demanded the 2% diaspora tax and “national defence” fee from Eritreans in the country.
Semere Ghebremariam Micael, head of the Eritrean Consulate
General in Toronto, had been under investigation over the allegations.
“Canada has taken steps to expel (declare persona non
grata) Mr Semere Ghebremariam O Micael, consul and head of the Eritrean
Consulate General in Toronto, effective immediately,” Canada’s foreign
affairs minister John Baird said.
The 2013 annual report by
the UN Monitoring Group on Somalia and Eritrea to the Security
Council’s Somalia/Eritrea sanctions committee revealed that the Eritrean
government was still undermining stability in Somalia by paying
political agents and a warlord linked to Islamist militants to influence the Mogadishu government.
Asmara has always denied any involvement with al-Shabaab militants fighting to overthrow the Somali government. It said that UN sanctions imposed in 2009 for supporting the Islamist militant group were based on lies.
The UN Security Council has decided to extend for 16 months sanctions against Somalia and Eritrea.
“In a resolution adopted this morning, the council asked Secretary-General Ban
Ki-moon to re-establish the eight-member Monitoring Group on Eritrea
and Somalia until 25 November, 2014,” reads a UN statement.
That extension may point to the fact that Eritrea is a case
of sanctions that work – but it is ordinary Eritreans who are paying
the price, not the government.
“The whole thing is extremely unfair,” said Kidane. “In all
the years since independence the regime in Eritrea has never been
accountable to the people and yet it has created a system to maintain
itself in power by extorting those very people.”
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