Some 280 Ethiopians stranded in war-torn Yemen returned home on 10 and 11 July 2019 with help from the International Organization for Migration, which had flown back 2,742 Ethiopians in 50 days.
The International Organization for Migration facility in Obock, Djibouti, a stop for migrants heading to Yemen, during a visit by U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Antony Blinken, 9 February 2016 (U.S. Department of State, Wikimedia Commons, public domain) [file photo]
The flights were part of an IOM voluntary humanitarian return operation that began in May 2019, funded by the U.S. State Department’s Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration through the Regional Migration Response Plan.
One returnee, a 16-year-old from Wollo whom IOM called Ahmed, said he quit school in the ninth grade and left home without his parents’ permission, hoping to reach Saudi Arabia. “When the smugglers tell you of job opportunities and the life you could have there, it sounds like a dream, but that is not the reality,” he said. His family borrowed from relatives abroad to pay 30,000 birr, about $1,000, that was demanded for his release.
Mohammed, 22, came home on crutches after losing a leg to a gunshot wound in Yemen. “With no money or a source of income, I am not sure how I will be able to make a living,” he said at IOM’s transit centre in Addis Ababa. “If I could get help to open a small shop that I can run, that would help me.”
Idris, 23, from Asela, said his wife sold their cattle to pay for his journey, and he came back with nothing. “I was severely beaten with a stick on my back and it is still aching. They were demanding hawala,” he said, using the word for ransom. “I saw some migrants lose their eyes and three men die.” IOM changed the returnees’ names to protect their privacy.
Malambo Moonga, head of migration management at IOM Ethiopia, said funding for programmes to reintegrate returnees and tackle the root causes of irregular migration was limited. “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,” he said.
IOM runs community conversation programmes to warn young people about the dangers of the route and to point to work at home. Yet many young Ethiopians are still lured by smugglers who promise an easy life in the Gulf, the agency said.
Sources: IOM via ReliefWeb, UN News