From: Berhane Habtemariam (Berhane.Habtemariam@gmx.de)
Date: Tue Mar 16 2010 - 17:10:19 EST
ETHIOPIA: Traffickers exploit World Cup fever
ADDIS ABABA, 16 March 2010 (IRIN) - Human traffickers and smugglers in
Ethiopia have taken advantage of the upcoming World Cup, duping victims into
believing that South Africa has created huge employment opportunities, says
a government report, Illegal Migration: Causes, Consequences and Solutions
to human trafficking and smuggling in Ethiopia.
Some 20,000 to 25,000 Ethiopians are trafficked to various countries
annually, the January report notes. Together with smuggling from Somalia,
the business is worth up to US$40 million a year, according to the
International Organization for Migration (IOM). Traffickers operate in
organized groups of eight to 25 in big towns.
"Human traffickers use various tricks, including the deception that South
Africa has created employment opportunities," Zenebu Tadesse, State Minister
for Labour and Social Affairs, said.
Speaking at a national conference on human trafficking and smuggling, she
said the government would implement measures to tackle the problem,
including repatriating thousands of Ethiopians who had been trafficked out
of their country and protecting the rights of those living in various
countries.
So far, she added, 2,000 Ethiopians had been repatriated from Tanzania,
Yemen, Libya and other Gulf countries, with the support of the IOM, the UN
Refugee Agency and other stakeholders.
Some traffickers and smugglers have also been arraigned in court. "Ethiopian
police have recently found some eight human traffickers and smugglers and
sentenced them to five to 12 years," said Moni Mengesha, head of the human
trafficking and illegal drugs department at the Ethiopian federal police.
Going south
Alemu (not his real name), a 27-year-old businessman, left for South Africa
in 2009 but ended up in a migrants' camp in Malawi.
"I went to one of the secret evening presentations given by brokers in
Hosaina town [400km south of the capital, Addis Ababa]," he said. "I decided
that night to sell everything, close my small shop and travel to South
Africa."
They travelled in a group of eight. "The broker told us the journey from
Ethiopia to South Africa would be very easy," he added. "[But] one died from
hunger as we travelled four days without food, another was shot dead
[allegedly] by police around the border between Kenya and Tanzania."
The group was caught around Songwe River by Malawi police in August 2009 and
taken to Dazleka refugee camp in Dowa, some 25km north of Malawi's capital
Lilongwe.
The camp is one of the biggest for refugees from Ethiopia, Somalia,
Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda and Burundi. There were about 400
Ethiopians when IRIN visited in September 2009.
"It took me almost a year to reach Malawi," Alemu told IRIN at Songwe. "The
broker in Addis told us we would easily reach South Africa, [but] we were
jailed in Tanzania for three months. Each of us had paid them US$1,200. We
were duped.
"I cannot reach South Africa now. I have nothing. nothing! I want to go back
home. We are treated as terrorists as we steal maize and sugar cane from
Malawian farmers."
"Creating havoc"
"We are worried about Ethiopians and Somali refugees here," a local resident
told IRIN. "They are engaged in theft and robbery. We want the government to
stop them from stealing our property and creating havoc here."
Internal Affairs and Public Security Minister Aaron Sangala told Malawi's
daily newspaper, The Nation, on 6 August 2009: "I have been told they
[Ethiopians] go to people's homes in gangs of 50 terrorizing Malawians.
These, to us, are economic refugees who are using Malawi as a transit
centre. We cannot tolerate that abuse of our hospitality."
"Bringing them back cannot be the only solution," Temesgen Zewde, an
opposition parliamentarian in Ethiopia, said.
Another opposition leader, Wondimu Idsa, told parliament: "It is also for
political reasons that many people, including MPs, journalists and doctors,
are leaving Ethiopia." The government denied the claims.
Teshome Tadese, special adviser to the president of Southern region, from
which many immigrants hail, said: "There is no political problem at all in
our region. Our region is very stable; it's totally in search of better jobs
and employment that these citizens are leaving the country."
That view was echoed by the IOM head of mission in Ethiopia, Josiah Ogina.
He urged Ethiopia to ratify and apply UN protocols to prevent, suppress and
punish trafficking in persons, especially women and children.
"We conducted research on youth who live in the Amhara region and are
potential migrants to the Middle East and South Africa," he told IRIN. "They
told us that their main problem is unemployment not politics."
http://pictures.irinnews.org/images/2010/201003160901180322.jpg
Photo: <http://www.irinnews.org/photo.aspx> Tewodros Negash/IRIN
<http://www.irinnews.org/PhotoDetail.aspx?ImageId=201003160901180322>
http://pictures.irinnews.org/images/design/magnify.gif
Most Ethiopian immigrants cross into Malawi on their way to South Africa
along the Songwe River
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