Eritrea has slashed conscription. Will it stem the flow of refugees?

All Eritrean men between the ages of 18 – 50 have to serve in the army for more than 20 years.

This policy has been given as the reason for large numbers of Eritreans fleeing the country.

In 2017, Eritreans represented the ninth-largest refugee population in the world with 486,200 people forcibly displaced. By May 2018 Eritreans represented 5% of the migrants who disembarked on the northern shores of the Mediterranean.