441-02559 (Foreign affairs)

We, the undersigned citizens and residents of Canada, draw the attention of the House of Commons to the following:

Whereas:

• Eritrea has been ruled by an authoritarian brutal dictator under a totalitarian system for the last 30 years with no constitution, no election, no parliament, no freedom of press and no freedom of movement and association;

• Eritreans continue to flee indefinite military conscription, religious persecution, and political repression, causing them to seek asylum across the world;

• Hundreds of thousands of Eritreans (about 30% of its population) have fled to escape from severe human rights violations amounting to crimes against humanity, as has been documented by the UN Commission of Inquiry on Eritrea;

• Those who have managed to flee the country still face intimidation and extortion from the representatives and agents of the Eritrean regime in the diaspora. Their families in Eritrea are also harassed and forced to pay tens of thousands of local currencies because their children have fled;

• Eritrean Embassies and other representations in the diaspora have been utilized, predominantly, to surveil and monitor the activities of Eritrean asylum seekers and the regime's critics, refusing consular services, controlling, indoctrinating and extorting;

• Eritrean Embassies and other representations in the diaspora also regularly organize political community events aimed at raising funds which are siphoned off into the regime's coffers and used to empower itself, maintain its grip on power and continue to repress the Eritrean people inside the country;

• Many diasporan Human Rights activists have started working to ensure the so-called 'community and cultural events that are organized by the Eritrean Embassies and their proxies are stopped. To this end, they have alerted home countries' pertinent orders of governments, asking them to reject requests for permits for such 'community and cultural events';

• The Eritrean Regime has responded to such efforts by Eritrean diaspora activists by encouraging violent responses, going as far as to organize and arm its loyalists e.g., the recent violence in Tel Aviv, Israel, and the response from the Eritrean Embassy Israel;

• The Eritrean dictator's overt alignment with Vladimir Putin and its belligerent stance against Western Democracies and the Horn of Africa countries; and

• Canadians of Eritrean origin are deeply concerned about the regime's reach and interference in their local communities through its party cadres and agents.

Therefore, we, the undersigned, call on the Government of Canada to:

• Engage Eritrean political and human rights activists and pro-democracy groups;

• Take a leadership role among the Western allies to challenge the Eritrean Dictator's malicious conspiracy with Vladimir Putin against Western countries and his belligerence in the Horn of Africa;

• Investigate foreign interference of Eritrea in Canada and take appropriate action (including rejection of entry visas and denial of event permits) against all front organizations, individuals, and events enabling this interference;

• Enforce Canada's asylum laws against those who explicitly provide material and political support to the very regime they claim to have fled from as they don't qualify as genuine refugees;

• Cancel the sponsorship application process to the Eritrean Regime loyalists including those who partook in the recent violent clashes in Tel Aviv, Israel, as they could pose a danger to the Canadian public after arrival in Canada;

• Advocate for the release of all the imprisoned journalists, including the Swedish-Eritrean journalist Dawit Isaak, and the 11 imprisoned Eritrean Parliamentarians (Petros Solomon, Mahmoud Ahmed Sherifo, Haile Woldense, Ogbe Abraha, Hamid Himid, Saleh Idris Kekya, Estifanos Seyoum, Berhane Ghebrezgabiher, Astier Fesehazion, Germano Nati, and Beraki Gebreselassie), and other political prisoners, and all prisoners of conscience; and

• Strengthen sanctions against human rights abusers in Eritrea.