Eritrea Army Conscription Still Spurs Asylum Pleas, Amnesty Says
- Indefinite service seen as main factor spurring people to flee
- Eritreans third-biggest group trying to crossing Mediterranean
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Eritrea’s use of indefinite national conscription is still the main factor spurring thousands of people to flee the Horn of Africa country every month, even after the government said it would scrap the practice, Amnesty International said.
A conscription system established in 1995 requires all adults to perform 18 months of national service, a period that’s “extended indefinitely” for “a significant proportion” of people, the London-based rights group said in a report. Amnesty interviewed people who’d been in service for more than 10 or 15 years before fleeing over the past 18 months, and others with husbands and fathers still conscripted after two decades.