EEPA unequivocally opposes and is profoundly concerned by the United States’ decision to lift targeted sanctions on Eritrea on 18 September, which were imposed by the US administration in 2021. Lifting these sanctions without requiring meaningful and verifiable improvements in governance, respect for human rights, and regional conduct is a dangerous and unjustified concession. Furthermore, as geopolitical security dynamics in the Red Sea grow increasingly unstable, prematurely relieving pressure on the authoritarian Eritrean regime risks further destabilising this critical global corridor.
Europe’s responsibility and strategic approach
In the face of this situation, EEPA urgently calls on European governments, the European External Action Service, and allied institutions to develop and implement a coherent, long-term strategy toward the Horn of Africa. The European Union’s policy must be firmly rooted in the rule of law, the protection of human dignity, the demand for democratic accountability, and a genuine commitment to peacebuilding, while rejecting any short-term, transactional compromise.
Eritrea’s unsuitability as a partner for regional stability
Eritrea has repeatedly acted as a spoiler rather than a stabilizing force in the Horn of Africa: occupation, cross-border militarization, shifting proxy alignments, and the use of its Red Sea position to advance regime interests rather than regional stability.
The Special Rapporteur’s June 2026 report found no signs of meaningful improvement, with systematic violations continuing with impunity and “reasonable grounds to believe crimes against humanity continue.” Eritrea remains the only country to have never accepted a UN human rights visit. In July 2025 the Council rejected Eritrea’s bid to end the mandate, renewing it instead. The UN special rapporteur on human rights in Eritrea, Mr Mohamed Abdelsalam Babiker stated: “there was no progress in the human rights situation in Eritrea… the situation has continued to deteriorate and remains dire and critical”.
Research allegedly traces complicity between Eritrean security structures and trafficking networks stretching from Eritrea to Sinai and Northern Africa.
Eritrea has a destabilising regional role. It is a partisan actor in Sudan’s war, training and arming cross-border militias. In Tigray, Eritrea has now allied with the TPLF in an alliance that challenges the Ethiopian government.
The UN Special Inquiry on Eritrea found that the indefinite national service is likely to amount to crimes against humanity and it has also been identified as slavery and forced labour. Amnesty International and other human rights organisations state that national service is still an indefinite forced conscription, “sometimes amounting to slavery”. Persisting through 2025 with no reforms, including unaddressed rape, sexual violence and torture in service.
Arbitrary detention and enforced disappearance remain “widespread, systematic and critically severe,” according to the Special Rapporteur on human rights in Eritrea. Religious persecutions continue to occur. Jehovah’s Witnesses and Christian leaders have been held for over 20 years sometimes incommunicado and two prominent Muslim leaders were forcibly disappeared in July 2025.
The human cost of continuing flight
More than 679,000 Eritrean refugees and asylum-seekers were recorded globally as of December 2025, a number still rising despite regional danger.
The Eritrea–Sudan border is a documented breeding ground for trafficking, linked to networks also moving drugs, arms and extremist financing. During the Tigray war, thousands were forcibly recruited from refugee camps, including children as young as 14.
Transnational repression has a long, documented history: Amnesty International’s 2019 investigation found Eritrean diaspora members affiliated with the ruling PFDJ party (and its youth wing, the YPFDJ) assaulting and harassing Eritrean human rights defenders abroad. It also documented a case in which a diaspora activist’s relative in Eritrea was repeatedly visited and threatened by security forces because of her advocacy. The Special Rapporteur also warned of growing reprisals against relatives in Eritrea used to silence the diaspora. Eritreans abroad continue to be subjected to a 2% income “Recovery and Rehabilitation Tax”, commonly known as the diaspora tax. Separately they are required to sign a “letter of regret,” admitting their wrongdoing for having left Eritrea, in order to access basic consular services: passports, birth and marriage certificates, academic records.
Protection systems for refugees across the region are collapsing under pressure due to systemic failures in registration, documentation and access to asylum, exacerbating international protection gap: Kenya suspended Eritrean and Ethiopian refugee registration in July 2025, Ethiopian security personnel extort between $200–$3,000 for the release of detained refugees and Egyptian authorities reportedly demand, in some cases, around 5,000 Egyptian pounds for release, even from refugees holding valid UNHCR documentation. Those unable to pay risk prolonged detention and possible deportation.
Need for accountability
There is currently no independent monitoring permitted within Eritrea to assess domestic conditions, so accountability remains completely absent. The United Nations Human Rights Council recently validated the severity of this ongoing crisis by extending the mandate of the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Eritrea in June 2026. This extension confirms that global pressure against these systemic violations must not cease. Any path toward diplomatic normalization must be strictly dictated by verifiable reforms, achieved human rights benchmarks, and demonstrated progress on the ground, not by cynical strategic calculations.
Regional stability cannot be built on impunity
The expiration of US sanctions does not alter the facts on the ground, nor does it erase the reality of Eritrea’s systematic and ongoing breaches of human rights. Rewarding an authoritarian government without securing meaningful structural reforms sets a dangerous precedent, risking the severe weakening of accountability mechanisms across the Horn of Africa and inevitably damaging long-term EU interests. Stability requires respect for human dignity, lawful governance, and public accountability. EEPA therefore issues a direct and urgent appeal to the EU, its Member States, and all European policymakers: hold the line against appeasement and ensure that any future engagement demands justice, transparency, and respect of human rights.