Stop Eritrea’s ‘war-funding diaspora tax’, say MPs and lords

A patriotic poster in Asmara, Eritrea. The government imposes a tax on Eritreans abroad that one critic called ‘extortion’. Photograph: AFP/Getty

A group of UK parliamentarians is calling for an urgent investigation into the collection of a “diaspora tax” by the Eritrean authorities, which they say could have helped fund war in neighbouring Ethiopia.

MPs and members of the House of Lords want the government to launch a “full, formal, and fully funded” public inquiry into the collection of the 2% tax in the UK, and take “robust action to stop the practice”.