Ethiopian immigrants returning from Saudi Arabia arrive at Addis Ababa’s Bole International Airport on December 10, 2013. Ethiopia has brought home close to 140,000 citizens from Saudi Arabia, the International Organisation for Migration said on December 18, 2013, a month after the oil-rich kingdom started deporting undocumented migrants. PHOTO | AFP
ADDIS ABABA
Ethiopia has brought home close to 140,000 citizens from Saudi Arabia, the International Organisation for Migration said on Wednesday, a month after the oil-rich kingdom started deporting undocumented migrants.
Thousands are continuing to arrive daily from Saudi Arabia, where a seven-month amnesty period for migrants expired in November and where Ethiopia says three of its nationals were killed in police clashes as the migrants prepared to leave.
“Ethiopia and IOM are now looking at an additional 35,000 migrants expected to arrive from the cities of Riyadh, Jeddah and new arrivals from Medina,” the IOM said in a statement.
The organisation said the massive influx of returnees, which began on November 13, has severely strained resources, and appealed for financial support to continue providing “humanitarian assistance” to thousands of people.
Ethiopia initially expected around 30,000 citizens to return home, but now expects 150,000 will fly back in what has become the largest human airlift in recent history.
The country now faces the difficult task of reintegrating tens of thousands of people, many of whom have returned with no savings or belongings.
Each year, large numbers of Ethiopians travel to the Middle East seeking work. Last year, 200,000 women sought work overseas, according to Ethiopia’s Ministry of Labour.
Many migrants face mental and physical abuse, low pay, sexual violence and discrimination, according to the IOM.
Ethiopia has one of the fastest growing economies in Africa, but the majority of the population earns less than two dollars a day.
Unemployment in Ethiopia’s cities is around 20 percent, according to the IOM.
Most of the Ethiopians have returned home empty-handed. When Mohamed Yusuf left his home town in Ethiopia for Saudi Arabia a year ago at the age of 17, he thought life would change for the better.
Instead, a difficult and unprofitable stay in Saudi Arabia ended when he was among the nearly 140,000 undocumented Ethiopian migrants deported by the Saudi authorities to date.
“At first, I thought I was going to change my life and those of my father and mother, who paid for the whole trip out of their meagre income,” said Yusuf, whose father is a farmer in northern Ethiopia.
However, the gruelling journey to Saudi Arabia and his stay there had been harrowing experiences, he told IRIN.
During the long trek through Ethiopia’s northeastern Afar Desert to Djibouti on the Red Sea, he endured hunger and thirst and had to bury some of his friends, who perished along the way.
On reaching Djibouti, he paid smugglers 5,000 Ethiopian Birr (US$261) to take him from Obock, on Djibouti’s northern coast, across the Gulf of Aden to Yemen.
From there he made his way to Saudi Arabia.
The majority of male migrants from Ethiopia follow similar routes when crossing into Saudi and mostly depart from Obock, although many also leave from Somaliland.
Female migrants usually enter as domestic workers under Saudi Arabia’s ‘kafala’ (sponsorship) system.
Human rights groups say the system creates conditions for abuse, including rules requiring workers to obtain permission from their employer to change jobs.
Those who do so without permission are considered undocumented and were among those rounded up during the government’s crackdown on foreign workers, which started in early November 2013.
WORKED AS A SHEPHERD
Initially, Yusuf found work as a shepherd in a rural area of Saudi Arabia but decided to leave after two months because his employers refused to pay him the 800 Saudi Arabian riyals ($213) they owed him.
“One day I decided to quit my job and fled to the city [of Jeddah]. And that was when I got captured by the police and put into prison for five months before coming here like this with many Ethiopians,” he told IRIN.
There was no opportunity to earn back the cost of getting there, let alone fulfil his dream of a better life.
“I’m confused and do not have any idea what I’m going to do next,” he told IRIN. “One thing is for sure, I will never go back to that country after seeing and hearing what is happening to Ethiopians there.”
According to Human Rights Watch and testimony from returnees, during the crackdown, Ethiopian migrant workers were subjected to beatings by Saudi police and citizens that resulted in at least three deaths.
Another returnee, Kidane Gebre, told IRIN: “After hearing this, my mother will be terrified and waiting for me anxiously. Many people from my home town were victims of this violence.”
Many of those rounded up were held in makeshift detention centres without adequate food or shelter while they awaited repatriation.
The Ethiopian government initially estimated that some 30,000 undocumented citizens were being detained and would need to be repatriated, but as of December 16 the number of returnees had reached 136,946.
Of these, 84,721 were men, 45,157 women and 7,068 children.
1,000 MIGRANT ARRIVAL PER DAY
Up until last week, over 7,000 were arriving every day, but according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM), the number has now slowed to about 1,000 a day.
Six transit centres have been set up in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, to receive the returnees and, with the support of government, IOM has been providing temporary accommodation, meals, medical services and a $50 transportation allowance to help the migrants complete their journey home.
The organization launched an appeal on December 6 for $13.1 million to continue addressing their needs, but to date had only raised $1.9 million.
“As the number of returnees increases, the financial gap has further widened,” notes a press briefing from IOM released on 17 December.
IOM’s Chief of Mission in Ethiopia, Josiah Ogina said the migrants included vulnerable people, such as the victims of human trafficking, unaccompanied minors, pregnant women, and disabled persons. “Many of those detained and returned to Ethiopia arrived in need of medical support,” Ogina told international donors in Addis Ababa.
Ethiopian government officials say they are viewing the situation as an opportunity to educate the public about the risks of irregular migration.
A spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Dina Mufti, said most of returnees had told interviewers they would not have left the country if they had known more about the treatment of migrant workers in Saudi, and what they would have to endure to get there.
“We know that there are people who went there by selling their houses and [those of] their families as well. Despite a lot of sad stories, we consider