Ethiopians have been mistreated by their employers’ now and then particularly those who live in the Middle East countries.
Zenash Niguse is one of the victims. To begin with, she was born and raised in Arsi Asela. Three years ago, when the idea of working in one of the Middle East Countries sprang into her mind, she thought that her life would be transformed in the shortest possible time. If truth be told, she did not imagine she would stumble across difficulties down the road no matter what the cost may be.
Whenever she was showered with pieces of advice concerning Ethiopians suffering in the Middle East countries on account of illegal immigration, she was turning a deaf ear. She was not in the position to lend ears. To the surprise of everyone, she was simply giving the cold shoulder seeing that illegal brokers were able to melt Zinash’s heart through fabricated stories.
As time progressed, she left for Beirut and embarked on working at a monthly salary of 1,000 ryial for four months. As the salary was not that attractive, she could not materialize her dream. Aside from stumbling upon quite a lot of problems, she was urged to work without charge for six solid months. As ill-luck would have it, as her employers were as selfish as a fox, whenever she requested them about the salary their response was, “As we rely on our children to meet ends, we have nothing to pay for you.”
As a loss of what to do, with time, she left for Dubai without the knowledge of anyone and lived there for a year and six months. She has encountered the same problem in Dubai. As per Zinash, Ethiopians come across various problems from their employers in the Middle East countries, for the most part, those who go there in an illegal ways.
As her employers knew the fact that she was staying in Dubai illegally, they were not paying her salary for long time. They were giving her a hard time. As she did not know what the future holds for her in-store, she was taking the bull by the horn no matter what happened. More often than not, she was feeling remorse.
Be that as it may, once when she logged into her Facebook account in mid-February this year, she stumbled upon a message saying, “Premier Dr. Abiy Ahmed returns home tomorrow concluding the three-day working visit, fellow Ethiopians with no legal documents and would like to return home can get registered at the Ethiopian embassy in the blink of an eye.”
In next to no time, without batting an eye, she got registered and came back home with Dr. Abiy Ahmed along with 135 Ethiopians. Words fail to express her deep and sincere gratitude to Dr. Abiy. She has a message to the youth of Ethiopia.
“I have suffered a lot from the deadly journey of illegal immigration time after time. Do not try to do things my way. If you work in your motherland by the sweat of your brow, you can change yourselves, your family and your country.”
The Ethiopian Herald Friday 28 February 2020
BY ADDISALEM MULAT
