http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/local/refugees-told-to-back-regime-266370981.html
Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION
Refugees told to back regimeDirected to sign petition by Eritrean
organization
By: Carol Sanders
Posted: 07/9/2014 1:00 AM |
A non-profit organization that provides resettlement services to Eritrean
refugees in Winnipeg is directing them to sign a petition in support of the
regime they fled.
Tuesday was designated Day of Action by the Coalition of Eritrean Canadian
Communities and Organizations chaired by Lambros Kyriakakos.
Kyriakakos runs the Eritrean Community of Winnipeg Inc. Centre on Hargrave
Street in downtown Winnipeg. That's where Winnipeg's estimated 2,500
Eritreans have been directed to sign a petition supporting the consulate in
Toronto and the collection of the diaspora tax.
Tuesday's Day of Action blitzed MPs with the petition in support of keeping
open the Eritrean consulate in Toronto, Kyrkiakakos said in an email to
Eritrean community members.
"They're trying to get people to sign a petition against closing the
consulate," said human rights lawyer David Matas. "A refugee resettlement
group shouldn't be asking refugees to do that," he said. "It's putting them
in an impossible situation. It's abusing their position to support the
regime and to get support from people who fled the regime."
Last year, the Eritrean consul was ordered out of Canada for using the
consulate to collect a two per cent income tax from expats to fund
Eritrea's government -- including its military, a violation of
international sanctions and Canadian law. Eritrea was sanctioned for
funding armed groups such as Al Shabaab that are destabilizing the region.
It has been one of the top 10 refugee-producing nations in the world and
referred to as the North Korea of Africa for its human rights violations.
Last month, a parliamentary subcommittee on human rights in Ottawa
questioned Kyriakakos about supporting the regime notorious for human
rights abuses.
MPs asked about reports from Eritrea of extrajudicial killings, enforced
disappearances and incommunicado detention, arbitrary arrest and detention,
torture and the lack of fundamental freedoms.
Kyriakakos responded by saying those reports -- by the UN, U.S., Amnesty
International and Human Rights Watch -- were biased.
Kyriakakos told MPs media reports that refugees in Canada who fled Eritrea
were being squeezed for money to send back to the regime are "vexatious and
frivolous." No one has been charged with extortion, he noted.
Media such as the Free Press that reported on Eritrean refugees complaining
they had to pay two per cent of their annual income to the government they
fled have been accused of "discrimination" by Kyriakakos. In 2011, when the
Free Press first reported their complaints, Kyriakakos organized a
demonstration in front of the newspaper, accusing the Free Press of
discrimination.
Kyriakakos told the human rights committee last month his organization has
no connection to the Eritrean government. On Tuesday, Kyriakakos said in an
email the petition is "entirely voluntary and addresses the issue of
continued consular services, which has an impact on all of our constituents.
"The consulate is, for many of our members, the provider of essential
services and a connection to their ancestral homeland."
But having people visit the community centre to sign a petition supporting
the Eritrean government is a problem, said Matas.
"You've got an Eritrean NGO interfacing with refugees and defending the
perpetrators," he said.
carol.sanders_at_freepress.mb.ca
Received on Thu Jul 10 2014 - 10:21:22 EDT