ADDIS ABABA – The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs are trying to reach overseas employment agreement with countries in the Middle East, said Nebiat Getachew, spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
“We have done so with Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and UAE so that it [the migration of Ethiopians in search of jobs] is based on contracts and will be a predictable journey so that their rights and privileges are well observed,” he recently told CGTN. Ethiopia, East Africa’s largest economy and one of the fastest growing in the continent has been faced with an unstoppable number of migrants who risk their lives in thousands every day while looking for a greener pasture somewhere else.
Nebiate also said part of the problem is the issue of information. Citizens have to be well informed about what they will face in trying to risk their lives in finding supposedly a better job through illicit brokers and traffickers.
So, one has to address the root causes of the issue, he said. “A lot of the push factors before were partly political and that has been by in large addressed in the past year,” he said adding, “A lot of political progress in terms of addressing issues of human rights has been done in the country, and what remains is the economic push factor.”
The Ethiopian Herald, May 16/2019
ESSEYE MENGISTE
