We were told on Tuesday that Eritreans in other countries—expatriates, of course—are forced to give back a percentage of their income to the Eritrean government. According to the UN Security Council resolution of last December 5, that money is used to procure arms and related material for transfers to armed opposition groups, and so on. That resolution in item number 10 condemns the use of this diaspora tax.
There was an article in the National Post in December a few days after this resolution was passed. It highlighted this and actually made reference to a document that my staff was able to find. It's from the consulate general of the state of Eritrea, in Toronto. It is a form that is basically used, from what we can tell, for the purpose of collecting a 2% tax on Eritreans in Canada. The suggestion is—and I can't corroborate it—that if you don't pay the tax there will be consequences.
What could our government do to prevent or ban this kind of activity? We know that a variety of international terrorist groups and other groups that have been banned in Canada do use Canada as a source of fundraising. We've talked about that before. But I'd be interested in your thoughts at this point. What do you know about this diaspora tax, and what do you think could be done about it?