JOHANNESBURG (AP) – Eritrea’s “systematic, widespread” human rights abuses should be referred to the International Criminal Court as crimes against humanity that include enslavement and torture, a United Nations commission of inquiry said Wednesday.
The commission said the tiny Horn of Africa country has made no progress on the most critical rights violations the group first documented a year ago.
Eritrean refugees are one of the largest groups trying to cross the Mediterranean Sea to Europe. The new report says 47,025 Eritreans applied for asylum in Europe in 2015.
Rights groups say Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki, who has been in power since 1991, has become increasingly repressive.
“The crimes of enslavement, imprisonment, enforced disappearance, torture, persecution, rape, murder and other inhumane acts have been committed as part of a widespread, systematic campaign against the civilian population since 1991,” commission chair Mike Smith told reporters in Geneva.