Ethiopians in Saudi should change, the threats to opportunities

Gemechu Tussa

It is sad that many Ethiopians have been suffering abroad though they left for a better life. Some of them were mislead by brokers who have been amassing a large amount of money through misleading youngsters to live abroad.

Others thought they would face better environment that at home.  However, a large number of Ethiopian have been suffering a lot while traveling and even at destination countries.

In the first place they do not get enough information about the kinds of job they entitled to perform at destination countries.  Neither do they have appropriate understandings of the culture and societal norms of those countries where they went. These two problems coupled with language shortages enhanced the burdens upon them.

The previously repatriated citizens from Yemen and Saudi Arabia witnessed that, it is hard to work freely in those countries. The reason is they left their country illegally and could not move freely from one place to another place.

Neither could they choose jobs and employers since they were sponsored and taken by anyone whom they do not know and with little knowledge of what would happen to them.

Despite the various job opportunities at home, the Ethiopian youngsters living abroad do not have that knowledge. As a result, they rush to leave abroad without assessing the possibilities at home and the difficulties they might face abroad.

However, illegal migration has a number of challenges. These challenges could be on the intervals themselves as they went to a new environment with different socioeconomic situations and cultural backgrounds. There is also a significant impact on their families.  And in fact, illegal migration also impacted the community in particular and the country in general.

There are few numbers of Ethiopians who got a chance to be successful abroad. The majority are obliged to live dog’s life as their entry is unauthorized.

 Due to the various challenges they suffer abroad, the number of Ethiopians who have affected physically and psychologically is very large. There are also reports indicating that there are Ethiopians who either hung or threw themselves down from many-storey buildings. 

Despite all these hardships, many Ethiopian youngsters are still leaving their country. They subjected themselves at a higher risk. Several others are either committing suicide just to shorten the incomprehensible earthly suffering or killed by their employers.

One of the significant efforts that the government and people of Ethiopia have been doing is taking human smugglers to justice. 

These smugglers have been misleading young Ethiopians with founded stories and instigate them to leave their country. That measure has almost become so effective in curbing human trafficking activities.

However, only the government can’t stop illegal immigration. It is indispensable that the entire people should come together to effectively tackle the problem of human trafficking.

Sometimes countries may deny accommodating illegal migrants. The youngsters learn such situations after they have already reached their destinations. What happened previously and what is happening at the moment in Saudi Arabia is a typical example for this. 

There is now a short period of time for the amnesty period to elapsed. Undocumented Ethiopians in Saudi Arabia should visit registration camps and turn to their country before they face barbaric actions like what happened before this time. There are a lot of possibilities at home. They need to changes the threats at foreign country into opportunities at homeland.

In fact, the government has been exerting its efforts to mitigate these problems in connection to illegal migration through signing various documents with other countries like Saudi Arabia. It has been attempting to create a legal system that could guarantee Ethiopians living abroad. 

The entire people need to come together and cooperate against illegal immigration in collaboration to what the government has been doing. Public mobilization and participation is indispensable for curbing illegal migration.

Over the course of the last sixty years, migration has remained being challenges throughout the world.  It has a significant impact on the economic and social development of the country.

There are reports that most of the youngsters turned home previously  have assimilated with their society and have become successful in their career using opportunities in the country’s social development strategy.

The government has made the necessary preparations to bring back its citizens and calling them to register on time and come back home.

However, reports indicated that there are a large number of unauthorized Ethiopians living in Saudi Arabia who have to come back home before the amnesty period comes to an end. Despite this fact, the number of Ethiopians who registered so far does not equate with the expected number.

Still the government of Ethiopia has been attempting to convince those Ethiopians to use the opportunity and turned home before the amnesty day.

It has been attempting to inform the difficulties they might face after the deadline and the possibilities of leading their healthy life at home. It is, therefore, time to all undocumented Ethiopian in Saudi Arabia to use the opportunity the government of Ethiopia has prepared to offer them and thereby change the threats to opportunities at their motherland.