"Western firms reduce Eritrean miners to 'abject slavery', UK MPs say", 19 Dec 2014

Western mining companies operating in Eritrea are reducing workers to “abject slavery” at their mines…a group of British MPs has said…The bill “notes with concern the collusion between the government of Eritrea and the international mining companies from the UK, Canada and Australia, which is using the forced labour of Eritreans for work in extractive industries in conditions which have been described as abject slavery”. MPs called on the Eritrean government to allow Sheila Keetharuth, the UN’s special rapporteur on human rights in Eritrea, to travel to the country and assess claims of widespread rights violations. Keetharuth has not been allowed to enter the secretive country since her appointment in 2012… Last month, three Eritrean refugees filed a lawsuit against Nevsun in a Canadian court over allegations that they were forced to work at the company’s Bisha mine against their will…