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Article

30 Oct 2015

Author:
United Nations

UN Security Council's Monitoring Group on Somalia & Eritrea alleges Nevsun's Bisha mine uses forced labour

"Letter dated 22 September 2015 from the members of the Monitoring Group on Somalia and Eritrea addressed to the Chair of the Security Council Committee pursuant to resolutions 751(1992) and 1907(2009) concerning Somalia & Eritrea"

"Throughout  its  mandate,  the  Monitoring  Group  has  received  testimony  from numerous sources, including from former senior Eritrean officials, that Senet, Segen and Mereb have used military conscripts to build and work on the mine. According to  multiple credible sources, the State-owned contractors and subcontractors hired by Nevsun to provide labour are engaged in an informal pay structure, whereby the contractors and subcontractors charge a certain amount to Nevsun for each military conscript or local worker employed at the mine while they pay far lower wages to the  military  conscripts  or  local  workers.  Although  the  exact  figures  of  labour agreements  between  Nevsun  and  the  contractors  remain  unknown,  currently  the workers of contractors and subcontractors are being paid monthly wages of between 200 and 500 nakfa. The rest of the funds paid by Nevsun to Segen and Mereb are being held by the aforementioned contractors and thus, by extension, by the military and the Government because the contractors are effectively State-owned companies."...

"The Group found that Nevsun had hired Segen and Mereb to provide labour in an arrangement where they paid workers far less than the amount that they were charging Nevsun for the labour. It is suspected that the difference is being withheld by Segen and Mereb, and thus, by extension, by the Eritrean military and Government."