UN || These new returnees are among a large group of Ethiopian migrants from Yemen who have been taken home as part of the IOM Voluntary Humanitarian Return operation that began in May 2019.
“A prominent challenge we are facing is the limited funding for programmes to sustainably reintegrate returnees and tackle the root causes of irregular migration in hotspot areas,” explained Malambo Moonga, IOM Ethiopia Head of Migration Management.
He also stressed that “the limited employment and livelihood opportunities at home make irregular migration to the Middle East through war-torn Yemen a viable option for vulnerable youth in Ethiopia.”
‘I never thought I would face this much difficulty’
Ahmed* (*Names of the returnees were changed to protect their privacy) is one of the fortunate ones who has returned in good health. Describing his ordeal, the teenager said that he witnessed torture and extortion, which remained strongly imprinted on his mind. “I never thought I would face this much difficulty,” he said.
When the smugglers told him about job opportunities, he thought it sounded like a dream, and left home without his parent’s permission.
However, the hardships he suffered eventually made him change his mind about continuing with the journey. In the end, his family took a loan from relatives abroad to pay 30,000 birr (US $1,000) required for his release.
IOM’s operation in Ethiopia
Meanwhile, IOM Ethiopia’s Migration Management Unit is launching several initiatives to raise awareness on the dangers of irregular migration. It also provides available livelihood options at home through the Community Conversation programme. Yet, many young Ethiopians continue to be lured by smugglers telling them how easy to transform their lives by migrating to the Middle East.
According to IOM, many such Ethiopian migrants have made the treacherous journey and been detained in war-torn Yemen without basic services. They also faced many challenges in accessing protection and assistance.
IOM has so far safely returned 2,742 Ethiopians in the past 50 days, with funding from the US State Department’s Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration (PRM) through the Regional Migration Response Plan (RMRP).
I just read a shameful story a video on another website where two opposing groups(so-called pro vs against the Abiy administration) were disorderly and therefore arrested in the DC area.
This just makes my heart bleed in utter sorrow. It saddens me because we who are supposed to be well educated and exposed to democracy that shows us how far tolerance go have not taken in such blessed attitude toward each other. After more than 45 years of trash talking to each other and reckless name calling we are still in the same rotten mud!!! In the meantime, those poor Oromo and Amhara farmers are still going about tending to their farms together. They are raising their families together. But We, us, the worst kind of human refuse are getting high from calling each other derogatory names that those noble farmers in the Chercher highland will never allow in their midst. You must be ashamed of yourselves. I go as far as saying I wish you were not even born. You are a disgrace to those dignified people who produced us all. You are a disgraced of the colored!!! You are a disgrace to humanity!!!
Some of you who claim to be Amharas are as of late trying to justify the killings of regional officials and two other government officials in the capital in front of the daughter of one of the victims. That was carried by none other than cold blooded thugs just because they had this runaway hatred toward the victims. That is nothing but a heinous crime only frequented by demonic terrorists. You should be ashamed of yourselves for condoning this un-Ethiopian(un-Amhara) savage act.
Those of you who claim to be Oromos who are having a fit to call every living, breathing and protesting Amhara a racist or a ‘neftegna’ you should also be ashamed of yourselves. You should know better that such reckless and bigoted name calling is the one that led to the massacre of those innocent peasants in Bedeno and other areas in the 1990’s. You are doing this just because you have been ravaged by this bug of yanking a territory from harmonious neighbors to call it your personal fiefdom. You are showing yourself as the worst bigots that ever crawled on this good earth. You must be ashamed of yourself. I wish you were not even born. That fantasy of a fiefdom is gonna remain just as such, a pipe dream, the story in the Wiz of Oz. You are being taken for a long ride by smart alecks in your midst, who are devoid of self respect by being busy scavenging at the dumpsites in Asmara until September 2018. In your and my name, I may add.
Now this is for the dear editors of this website. My previous plea to you and your colleagues still stands. You must not allow bigots to have an easy walk in the park on this waterhole. You owe it to those noble people we all left behind. These bigots are spewing lethal poison from their comfy homes here in the USA and the rest of the Western world. They don’t give a damn if that old country, that gem of the colored goes up in flames. I don’t have to tell you this because they themselves had said it already that unless their objectives are met they don’t give a flying tickling if the whole country goes up in flames. You Amhara this, you Oromo that, you Tigre this and you whoever you are that. That has been the romance of the day, every day for these hate mongering demons. I hold you in the name of our forefathers who shed their Allah created blood so we can live in peace and harmony. We should remember that one day we will all stand in front of The Almighty Our Creator to answer for our actions, every one of them!!!