# taz.de -- Migration policy in Ethiopia: Europe's favorite country | |
> Ethiopia is both a country of origin and transit for refugees and | |
> migrants. The EU's interest in good cooperation is correspondingly high. | |
Bild: Women mourn during the funeral for victims of the stampede after a police… | |
When Chancellor Angela Merkel traveled to Ethiopia in October 2016, dozens | |
of exiled Ethiopians gathered in front of the building of the EU Commission | |
at the Brandenburg Gate with protest banners. „The support of dictators in | |
Ethiopia does not lead to an improvement in living conditions, but promotes | |
flight and crimes against humanity,“ said Seyoum Habtemariam, chairman of | |
the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission in Germany. | |
Merkel's visit to Ethiopia's capital Adis Abeba came at a very bad time. | |
Only a few days before, hundreds of participants were murdered in the | |
village of Bishoftu, south of the capital, at the traditional Thanksgiving | |
of the Oromo People. Parts of the regions populated by Oromo and Amharen | |
have been in turmoil since 2015 against the central government. What began | |
there as a local outrage over governmental landgrabbing had extended to a | |
coordinated protest movement that called for the overthrow of the | |
government. Already in August 2016, more than a hundred people had been | |
killed in mass protests in several cities. One day before Merkel's visit, | |
the state of emergency was imposed on the country, the Internet and the | |
social networks were switched off. Europe's favorite country showed the | |
face of a repressive regime. | |
Taking this into account, the Chancellor, at her meeting with Prime | |
Minister Hailemariam Desalegn, warned that „a lively civil society is an | |
essential part of a developing country“. In the same breath, she promised | |
the training of national police forces, who were overwhelmed with | |
insurrections, and the support of a dialogue between the people in the | |
conflict regions. Then she cut through the band to celebrate the | |
inauguration of the newly-finished headquarters of the Security Council of | |
the African Union (AU) in Addis Ababa. Germany had financed the | |
construction with 27 million euros – as a measure of “regional | |
stabilization“. | |
Ethiopia has hitherto accommodated most of the refugees on the continent, | |
well over 700,000, most of them from Somalia and South Sudan. According to | |
the law, the refugees must live in one of the 24 refugee camps, which are | |
run by the national refugee agency (ARRA) together with the UN refugee aid | |
agency (UNHCR). The two largest camps with more than 200,000 people are | |
located in the south of the country: Gembella on the border with South | |
Sudan, Dollo Ado near the border with Somalia. In the north, the Shire camp | |
houses more than 100,000 refugees on the Eritrean border. Only around 7,000 | |
refugees received an exception permit due to security or health problems in | |
2015 in cities such as Adis Ababa. | |
## Transit and country of origin | |
Because of extreme drought in the deserts of the South, as well as ethnic | |
conflicts and border disputes, the country lives around 800,000 internally | |
displaced, most of them in camps. Human rights organizations report the | |
violent expulsions of ethnic minorities by the government, especially in | |
the South, where huge land is being built for agriculture or dams are built | |
to increase food production, which is so important to hunger-stricken | |
land.Ethiopia is a transit country for refugees from South Sudan, Somalia | |
and Eritrea, but also for African migrant workers on their way to the | |
Arabian Peninsula. At the same time, the repressive regime itself generates | |
more and more refugees: over one million of the roughly 90 million | |
Ethiopians are seeking refuge in exile. Many travel south, especially to | |
Kenya. Some move to Tanzania and even to South Africa. But there they are | |
now threatened with arrest, since they have no work permit.Most migrant | |
workers, about 80 percent, have moved eastwards to the Arabian Peninsula, | |
especially to Yemen and Saudi Arabia, where African men work on | |
construction sites and women are hired as childminders. Ethiopia's | |
government has banned all attempts to recruit workers from the Arab world | |
in Ethiopia until 2013.The extent to which the labor migration of | |
Ethiopians to the Arabian Peninsula is so far is only to be expected. After | |
Saudi Arabia announced to deport Ethiopians in 2014, regional analysts with | |
around 20,000 returnees, Bram Frouws recalls from the regional think tanks | |
RMMS, which systematically records migration data on the Gulf of Aden. | |
Deported were ultimately 250,000, Frouws said. | |
## Variable escape routes | |
Even after the war broke out in Yemen in 2015, the numbers are steadily | |
increasing: from the 120,000 migrants arriving in Yemen in 2016, 85% of | |
Ethiopians were, according to Frouws. Significant is the recent increase in | |
Oromo's share among the Ethiopian migrants after the brutal suppression of | |
protests in October 2016. In November, 98% of the arriving Ethiopians | |
belonged to the Oromo ethnic group. In the course of a voluntary return | |
initiative, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) saved more | |
than 600 migrants, most of the Ethiopians, from Yemen's war riots and took | |
them to Djibouti. In October 2016, more than a thousand Ethiopians escaped | |
from a detention center in South Yemen with the help of a prison guard. | |
The escape routes beyond the Ethiopian border are becoming increasingly | |
dangerous. The massacre of the Islamic state ISIS has spread to 30 | |
Ethiopian migrants in Libya in 2015. They had left their homeland via the | |
northern border post Metema, a collection point for smugglers. The | |
government in Addis then closed the border crossing, arrested some 200 | |
suspected human smugglers. RMMS surveys on the migration routes show how | |
„the smugglers and tugs react quickly to changes in the migration routes | |
and how well they are equipped, mostly with satellite telephones,“ says | |
Frouws. The RMMS recently reported that more Ethiopians and Eritreans flee | |
across Darfur and across Chad to Libya in order to bypass the border | |
patrols of Sudan that have been upgraded, he says. | |
According to the EU, more than 3,500 Ethiopians are irregularly submitted | |
to Europe in 2015. This represents an increase of 175 percent compared to | |
the previous year. Around 6,000 applied for asylum in the EU Member States, | |
around half of them were granted. The UNHCR estimates that about half of | |
the Somali and Eritreans who are receiving asylum in Europe are in fact | |
Ethiopians who indicate false identities so as not to be deported. | |
So far, Ethiopia has not shown itself particularly cooperative with regard | |
to the return of rejected asylum seekers. The EU strategy paper on | |
negotiating a repatriation agreement speaks of a rate of only 16 per cent. | |
For other countries it is 40 percent. | |
## Charm offensive from the EU | |
„Ethiopia is a regional heavyweight; It has assumed responsibility for | |
peace and stability in the region in many areas and is an important actor | |
in pan-African questions „- it sounds like this in the Chancellor's Office | |
when the speaker explains the reason for Merkel's journey to Ethiopia. | |
For the EU, Ethiopia is the most important partner country for migration | |
regulation in Africa alongside Nigeria. As early as November 2015, the EU | |
and Ethiopia signed a joint declaration on the implementation of the Common | |
Agenda for Migration and Mobility (CAMM) at the EU-Africa Migration Summit | |
in Valletta, Malta. The objective is that the EU will help to prevent | |
trafficking in human beings and illegal migration, as well as the provision | |
of relief funds for the purpose of combating the cause of flight. | |
The EU is committed to supporting Ethiopian border units in regional | |
training programs, to prosecute law enforcement agencies to combat | |
trafficking in human beings and smuggling, to develop biometric data | |
storage of passports, as well as tracking counterfeit detection equipment. | |
Cooperation is particularly important in this area, in order to identify | |
asylum seekers who erroneously turn out to be Somali or Eritreans in order | |
to obtain asylum in the EU, the EU Commission's strategy paper on the | |
negotiations of the repatriation agreements states. Ethiopia's cooperation | |
with Ethiopian authorities is unavoidable. Three months later, 57 cases | |
were given to Addis Ababa. | |
In the future, there will be an annual meeting in Brussels or Addis to | |
evaluate the progress made in the „Dialogue on Migration and Mobility“, | |
according to the agreement. Ethiopia is committed to accelerating the | |
return process. As helping EU institutions, they explicitly mention | |
Frontex, Europol and the European Asylum Support Office (EASO). A status | |
report from November 2015 states that Ethiopia has already identified cases | |
of potential reimbursement of rejected asylum seekers from the EU, a | |
procedure has been established. However, the sending of an EU immigration | |
link from Frontex is still pending, in order to carry out deportations. | |
## Economic power of the diaspora | |
Conversely, the EU wants to meet Ethiopia, with visa facilitation and | |
expansion of economic partnership to maintain good economic growth. To this | |
end, a business event in Brussels will be held to promote investment. In | |
his visit to Brussels, Ethiopia's Foreign Minister had also explicitly | |
asked for a more cost-effective re-transfer of exiled Ethiopians from other | |
European countries. Ethiopia's gross domestic product and foreign exchange | |
reserves are enormously dependent on these money transfers to the families | |
in the home country. To maximize this, the government in Addis 2013 called | |
the so-called diaspora policy, which encourages Ethiopians in exile to | |
invest with a hard foreign currency in their home country. | |
In 2015, Ethiopia signed a dialogue with the EU on migration development, | |
the so-called Coutonou Agreement. With this, measures are to be implemented | |
to prevent human trafficking and smuggling. Ethiopia is one of the main | |
beneficiaries of the EU Emergency Relief Trust for Africa. Already in 2015 | |
targeted measures against the sluggishness had been determined at the | |
summit in Valletta for Ethiopia. 253 million euros were earmarked for this. | |
In April 2016, a further 117 million euros were earmarked to support | |
refugees, internally displaced persons and their host communities. Ethiopia | |
has a share of 30 million euros. | |
In July 2016, the EU signed two other agreements with Ethiopia to be | |
financed by the EU Trust Fund. Italy's development agency is responsible | |
for implementation. Approximately 20 million euros will be invested in | |
vocational schools and training programs for young people and women, | |
especially in the regions of the country, which are particularly affected | |
by irregular migration. The aim was to reduce the migration of young | |
people. A further 47 million euros will be used to tackle the causes of the | |
escape in five regions with neglected ethnic minorities. Here, too, the | |
focus is on vocational training and better school and health care as well | |
as food security. The EU policy description assumes that young people | |
migrate less or emigrate if they find locally better living conditions. In | |
the agreements, it is suggested that the central government, by its | |
repressive policy against minorities and enormous land allocation to | |
foreign investors such as Saudi Arabia itself creates reasons for escape. | |
## Military and police | |
Within the framework of the so-called Khartoum process, Ethiopia is | |
allocated € 45 million from the Treuhandfond for Africa under the keyword | |
„better migration management“. The German Association for International | |
Cooperation (GIZ) has added further offices in Addis and is expanding its | |
work further. Ethiopia's law enforcement agencies are to be empowered to | |
act against traffickers. Regional training programs for border authorities | |
are to be implemented in order to establish joint border patrols between | |
neighboring countries and to strengthen cooperation. | |
Almost all border lines of Ethiopia are contested locally and regionally, | |
especially the line of demarcation against Eritrea, which had disappeared | |
after an independence war in 1993. The border region is today an official | |
war zone on both sides and is monitored by Ethiopian, well-trained special | |
units of the army. Also along the border with Kenya there are always | |
battles with Kenyan border troops. The desert-like area is a pasture and | |
transit area for pastoralist peoples with their huge herds of cattle, which | |
migrate back and forth in the barren desert depending on the rain and dry | |
season. The settlement of the numerous border conflicts and thus the better | |
regulation of the migration movements in and through Ethiopia can | |
contribute to more stabilization in the region, according to the | |
agreements. | |
Hardly any country is as armed as Ethiopia. The borders are defended by | |
special forces of the army. Dieseling fast intervention groups are also | |
used for the suppression of protests and insurrections. „The tension | |
remains elevated and the human rights situation is terrible,“ says Michelle | |
Kagari of Amnesty International. | |
Ethiopia, one of the first countries in 2012, has set up an agency to | |
combat trafficking in human beings, the National Council against Human | |
Trafficking (NCHF). This emerged from a task force, which had already been | |
founded in 1993, in order to prevent the mass expulsion to South Africa | |
after the loss of Eritrea in the independence war. Today's Prime Minister | |
Desalegn was once the chairman of the NCHF, today she is headed by Deputy | |
Prime Minister Demeke Mekonnen. Representatives of the central, but also | |
the local governments, as well as the secret services, as well as | |
representatives of various ministries and youth organizations, are also | |
members of the Executive Board. | |
In 2015, a law on the prevention and suppression of trafficking in human | |
beings and smuggling has been passed, which provides penalties of up to 25 | |
years of imprisonment and fines, also for the helpers of smugglers and | |
document counterfeiters. In the case of serious offenses where the death of | |
migrants by smugglers was intentionally accepted, the death penalty can | |
also be imposed. | |
The NCHF agency is involved in places where many migrants live, among other | |
things, with reconnaissance campaigns. It is gaining more and more | |
information from the population and refugees themselves, and has been able | |
to record some successes in the past few years. NCHF reported more than 200 | |
arrests in 2015, according to a report from the regional Sanah research | |
institute based in Kenya. Ethiopian NCHF agents, in collaboration with | |
Sudanese and Kenyan border authorities, had carried out cross-border | |
investigations on smuggling networks that drag migrants to South Africa. | |
The US State Department, however, noted in its 2015 report that although | |
the investigations are increasing, corruption and complicity with the | |
perpetrators impede the enforcement of the laws. According to the country | |
profile of the Swiss NGO Global Detention Project, it is also worrying that | |
little is known about the internment facilities and their conditions for | |
the imprisoned migrants and refugees. | |
12 Dec 2016 | |
## AUTOREN | |
Simone Schlindwein | |
## TAGS | |
migControl | |
Jemen | |
## ARTIKEL ZUM THEMA | |
Vor Jemens Küste: Schlepper stoßen Flüchtlinge ins Meer | |
Mindestens 29 Menschen seien dabei ums Leben gekommen, meldet eine | |
UN-Behörde. Sie nennt den Vorfall vor der jemenitischen Küste | |
„schockierend“. |