BY LELUSEGED WORKU
Every year, more than a million youth enter the labor force in Ethiopia. Despite all the efforts to create better job opportunities in different mega projects, manufacturing, construction, trade and service sectors, the number of unemployed citizen remains one of the pressing challenges to Ethiopia.
For this reason, like other parts of the world, it is common for Ethiopians, especially young people, to travel to foreign countries illegally looking for job opportunities with attractive salary.
In fact, for some of the young people, the reasons to travel abroad illegally are not economic problem. But, it is associated with family pressure, peer influence, and human traffickers’ traps.
As a result, many Ethiopians have been migrating to overseas illegally, mainly to the Arab countries, and other areas thinking they could earn a living and support their family.
Those fortunate young migrants, whose luck has lead them to a country where the economy is better and the political situation is stable, are seen working hard, improve their own lives and send money back to their families. Unfortunately, there are also others whose life ended up in prisons, face number of challenges or returned back home empty handed.
Sources indicated that Ethiopia has the largest number of migrants returning to the East and Horn of Africa, mainly after travelling seeking work opportunities in overseas. Ethiopia, as a major labor sending country, is currently experiencing an increase in number of returnees.
Seeing the social and economic challenges of the returnees, the Ethiopian Government is also working aggressively to rehabilitate returnees, provide them with better job opportunities and trainings. For instance, as it was indicated by Ministry of Labor and Skill (MoLS), more than thousands of Ethiopian returnees have recently got job opportunities in various economic sectors. The Ministry, joining hands with other stakeholders and partners and using the available resources and opportunities, has created job opportunities to returnees.
Understanding the socioeconomic burden of the problem not only on the individual returnee, his/her respective families and even on the country, several stakeholders are also discharging their social responsibilities in accordance with the directives the government has set to provide job opportunities for returnees.
As part of this effort, lately, the Ministry of Labor and Skill, along with JAMBO Cleaning Service, First Consult and Addis Ababa Labor Enterprise Industry Development Office, has created job opportunity for not less than 1,000 returnees. Using the opportunity provided by the Ministry and stakeholders, the returnees have taken basic life skill trainings that would equip them with the required knowledge and skills to be productive citizens.
Employment Provision Leader with the Ministry Birhanu Abera said that the MoLS, is paving the way for returnees to support themselves and start their own business through allocating all the available resources
On his part, JAMBO Cleaning Service Managing General Tewodros Gebrye, said that his organization is working to support the returnees. According to him, Jambo Cleaning Service, together with the Ministry and other stakeholders, is providing relevant training to returnees to equip them with better training to make them effective and productive citizens.
In an interview with the local media, returnees who took the training said that the training provided by the Ministry and stakeholders is timely and have a great contribution to their future career. According to returnees, the multipurpose training provided by the Ministry of Labor and Skill in partnership with other stakeholders have a crucial role in shaping their future and serve as a means to earn their own income.
Returnees face a lot of difficulties upon return, in particular in terms of creating decent livelihood opportunities, especially in a situation of mass return. Several experts in the area suggests that one of the main priorities of countries who faced mass returnee is to strengthen their institutional capacity to provide economic empowerment support to returnees such as career counseling, market-oriented skill building, and sustainable livelihood training for instance through job-placement or access to finance to start up own businesses.
As it is indicated by ILO, building strong cooperation and capacity building activities to manage returnees and reintegration should be part of countries` priorities in supporting them. Furthermore, providing returnees with basic skill trainings on entrepreneurship and motivational skill is one tool in overcoming economic and social challenges of returnees.
Indeed, the issue of migration and reintegration has become a priority agenda for the Government of Ethiopia. With the increase in migration flows from Ethiopia over the past decade, returning and reintegration has become an increasing salient issue, with many Ethiopian nationals coming back to Ethiopia.
As the number of returnees increase, the government is also working to address the challenges and reduce returnees’ economic and social burdens. In this respect, the role of private sectors in easing government`s burden by providing training and job opportunities to returnees is worth appreciating. The partnership between JAMBO Cleaning Service and the Ministry is a good indication in this regard.
The partnership between the Ministry of Labor and Skills and private sectors is a step towards strengthening public-private partnerships in helping the repatriates; it is a critical step in laying the groundwork for other possible collaborations with the private sector to create even more job opportunities for young returnees in Ethiopia.
In related news, the Ministry of Women and Social Affairs said that last Friday about 1,014 Ethiopians have returned home from Saudi Arabia. The Ministry indicated that out of the total returnees 924 are men, 63 women and 27 them are children under the age of 18. The Ministry also indicated that returnees are obtaining all the necessary support at the Airport and Sheltering centers and, reunification with their family members is being carried out.
THE ETHIOPIAN HERALD 18 DECEMBER 2022
