BY MENGISTEAB TESHOME
It is clear that since the last few decades, migration is emerging as one of the leading global and national policy subjects of the 21st century. Particularly, for people of developing countries, illegal migration has continued to be one of the pressing challenges. It is common to see people of developing countries leave their home country and migrate to developed countries hugely for economic and security concerns, in search of better opportunities, employment, education, to have better living standards, fleeing conflict and violence among others. The case, as many agreed, imposes a huge socioeconomic burden on both origin and destination countries. Obviously, the Horn of Africa region is the main places of origin, transit and destination for refugees and migrants who leave their homes for different reasons.
According to estimation from the International Organization for Migration (IOM, 2021), 51 percent of the migrants move within the region followed by about 36 percent who travel to Gulf States through the Eastern Route. Others use the Southern Route heading to South Africa or the Northern Route to the Maghreb region and Europe. Often out of necessity, many of them travel irregularly, without a visa or valid papers. They often seek the support of smugglers to facilitate their journey exposing themselves to huge risk.
Their vulnerability makes them easy targets for criminal networks and human traffickers who exploit human beings for profit. Human trafficking is estimated to be a 150-billion USD industry and one of the fastest-growing transnational criminal activities of the 21st century. When we come to Ethiopia, emigration has risen dramatically in recent years while the country is serving as a central hub for people journeying across the Horn of Africa, particularly migrants from neighboring countries, aiming to reach Europe and other northern destinations.
Reports that are coming from different ministries and international institutions also confirm that most of the emigrations are illegal and unsafe. Not only that but it also shows that the number of migrants facing life-threatening situations and death during their journeys is rising in the various routes. For this reason, countries around the globe are engaged in framing ways to address the phenomena in a more constructive and safe way than ever before
Recently, a collaborative workshop aimed at discussing the reality on the ground regarding to illegal migration, the pull and push factors; as well as bringing academic resources related to the matter at one database and recommending ways on how to combat the challenge, was organized by Wachemo University and pertinent stakeholders.
Taking the discussion into account, The Ethiopia Herald reached out Wachemo University Research and Community Services Vice president Tsedeke Lambure (PhD) to have his view on this same issue. As to him, the workshop was the first of its kind to discuss national migration realities that target to build a migration resource center at a single database system for policy makers and decision makers.
According to him, three international organizations named the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), International Organization for Migration (IOM), the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) and three Ministries: Justice, Education, Labor and Skills and nine higher education institutions, were among the participant.
Higher learning institutions have been producing a number of research outputs regarding immigrants seeing the problem from various perspectives though it is hard to access them. Thus, the workshop tries to devise ways how researchers could put together the documents in a single database. Putting the documents at a single resource center could increase accessibility for academies, decision makers as well as for international and local institutions to learn more about the intensity of migration in Ethiopia and beyond, he added. This, in turn, is believed to effectively address and reduce trafficking in human beings as well as smuggling of migrants from various parts of Ethiopia and the Horn of Africa region by applying a human rights-based approach.
“The collaboration work is worthy to curb migration; and the effort to address through research is productive because it helps to develop national and regional Better Migration Management (BMM) that can fit with place of origin, transit and destination for immigrants,” he underlined. According to him, the Ministry of Education is in charge of collecting the acknowledged research papers and publishing research journals and distributing them to the concerned bodies.
Wachemo University Research and Development Directorate Director and Development Economics Researcher Abebe Markos (PhD) for his part said that migration is becoming a horrible phenomenon that should be addressed and managed accordingly. The illegal migrants always decide to travel to destinations attracted by a few fellow individuals’ success, rather than giving due attention to the ordeals, killings, and tortures that many youths face on their routes by human traffickers. In reality, the journey always puts undocumented travellers at serious risks.
According to him, Ethiopia is the country where a significant number of labor migrants travel to the Middle East countries through both regular and irregular channels, risking their life. Mentioning that a number of push and pull factors are at interplaying, he said that at the workshop the issue of unemployment coupled with poverty, family and peer pressure, and low public awareness on the positive and negative aspects of migration have been acknowledged.
“In my view the findings of the research papers could serve as a guiding tool to develop intervention mechanisms and to address the dire problem. Education as well Labor and Skills Ministries and other stakeholders could use it as a resource center to develop strategies.”
Moreover, the workshop has identified the major pulling factors like advancement of information and communication technology, social networks, better living standards and demand for labor in major destination countries. Wachemo University, along with pertinent stakeholders, will keep on serving the community. It will also extend the needed support in the effort exerted in formulating well established national migrant friendly policy; works to create an informed community, and make societies to be actively engaged in resolving the issues caused by irregular migration, he concluded.
THE ETHIOPIAN HERALD SATURDAY 11 FEBRUARY 2023
