May I answer that question?
I've done the research on how the mining companies are operating. I have a photocopy—but I have to translate it into French—of a summary of the interviews with the people who work at the mining project.
As for what is happening is, first of all, the people who are employed by Nevsun are well fed and well paid, and they are well quartered.
The subcontractors are the government-owned companies, construction companies, and they employ about 3,000 Eritreans. Those 3,000 are poorly paid. They sleep in a makeshift-like camp. They eat very poorly. They work up to 16 hours. This second group is the conscripts. The conscripts are like a battalion or a brigade. They bring them there and give them the construction company's uniform. The conscripts are warned not to say they are conscripts.
[Evidence given in camera]
Nevsun is the main company. The project, the Bisha mining project, is owned by Nevsun and Eritrea's government.
Nevsun brought in the subcontractor, a South African company called SENET. To be honest, SENET wanted to do everything by the book. They tried everything. Sometimes they even gave the safety equipment, but the Eritreans never.... My people, they work with no industrial gloves, no hard hats, and no goggles or steel-toed boots or safety belts, etc. These are not provided.
The companies, SENET and Nevsun, brought in about 400 Zimbabweans and Philippians from Zimbabwe and South Africa. They are well fed and well protected. You could say that my own people have been used as slaves in their own country, while the others, you could say.... You know, the perception here is like white and black; this was the colony times.
But as for what is happening here for the black Africans from Zimbabwe and the black Eritreans in Eritrea, the Eritreans have nothing to eat, honestly, and $9 a month for 16 hours doesn't add up. I am one hundred per cent sure that Nevsun and SENET, they know, but they just turn a blind eye, and they don't know anything, you know.... So for me, yes, they are making money out of my people, at the cost of my people.