The Painful Ordeal of Ethiopian Migrants Repatriated from Saudi

Ethiopian Migrants Repatriated: Ethiopia saw the repatriation of more than hundreds of its migrant workers living in Saudi Arabia in the end of March 2022. However, this is only the first batch of workers out of the approximately 100,000 nationals who look forward to repatriated to their home country over the coming months.

The first contingent of 900 returnees mostly included mothers along with their young children, who kept arriving at the Addis Ababa International Airport for the whole day, as per the IOM or the International Organization for Migration.

In a statement the IOM claimed, “It is estimated that about 750,000 Ethiopians currently reside in the Kingdom (of Saudi Arabia) with about 450,000 likely to have travelled to the country through irregular means and will need help to return home.”

The human rights record of Saudi Arabia has remained in question for years, especially the detention condition of migrant workers and human rights activists. In this situation, it was the detention condition of Ethiopian migrants in Saudi Arabia, which was being criticized for abusing basic human rights.

Amongst those detained, 29-year-old Jemila Shafi said that they “were crying daily” and added that a group of 300 people would be provided with one load of bread along with a pot of cooked rice to be shared. “Even 400 people were living in one room and we couldn’t see the sun light,” she said.

Most of the women who returned from Saudi Arabia wore traditional black robes called abaya, with some even covering their faces by a niqab.

According to the communication issued by the foreign ministry of Ethiopia, 100,000 more citizens of the country will be repatriated over the next 11 months from Saudi Arabia, as part of an agreement signed between the two nations.

The situation of Ethiopians in Saudi Arabia has not been very well for quite some time, with nearly 352,000 people repatriated from the Arab nation over the past four years of time span.