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The staff member told the man to visit the consulate and explained how it worked. “They will calculate it for you, how much you should pay,” the official told him. “Then somebody, either you or your wife in the country [Eritrea], will pay in Canadian cash the 2% amount. You send the money from here to her. After we calculate it here, we notify them the amount to be paid.”

A woman who phoned the consulate was told the tax was as an obligation like Canadian income taxes, and that even bank loans were taxable, according to a transcript of the call, which took place in April.

She was told to have someone carry Canadian cash to the Eritrean capital, Asmara. “Everybody is doing what I am telling you to do,” the employee said. “We are here to solicit and calculate the 2% tax. And inform accordingly.”

Following complaints about the system, Canada expelled the Eritrean consul-general last May. But Foreign Affairs continued to receive reports about the taxes, and late last month, Eritrea agreed to abide by three conditions stipulated by Ottawa.

The undertaking signed by Eritrea pledged that: the consulate would not be involved in any way in soliciting or collecting taxes; any taxation would be done directly by the Eritrean government without the use of agents in Canada; tax forms used in Canada would not contain any reference to financing the Eritrean military.

But a spokesman for the Eritrean-Canadian Human Rights Group of Manitoba said the recorded conversations, which it has compiled and translated, showed that since agreeing to the terms the consulate has continued as before.