For long the government has been taking various measures to contain illegal trade but the practice has been growing from time to time. The absence of strong law enforcement bodies and rampant corruption attributes to the escalating illegal practices. Tobacco products, new and old clothes, medicines, food and beverages, electronic items and other expired medicines entered to the country in huge volume through illegal trade. Such practice is common to the ordinary citizens particularly in the periphery regions of the country.
Since recently, the types of products which enter here are growing and among others, illegal drugs, arms, foreign currencies and other products can be mentioned. Some of them are traced and captured by the law enforcing organs and the culprits faced criminal charges.
In addition to these, According to Custom Commission, vehicles and spare parts, illegal private and heavy machine guns are coming here. Mulugeta Beyene is working in the Ethiopian Custom Authority as vice Commissioner in the Department of Abiding by the custom Law. He said that, high valued minerals have been taken away to the neighboring countries through illegal means.
Forged local and foreign currencies are coming here illegally. Foreign currency coming here legally is also taken away out of the country illegally. Due to the illegal exporting of mines, Ethiopia has been losing huge amount of hard currency and had it been exported in the formal channel, it would have been benefit the country.
Forest products, coffee, sand, cement and even petroleum products in which the country imported spending hard currency find their ways to the neighboring countries through illegal trade. He further said that, illegal traders conduct transporting goods during night times. In these activities, organized youth engaged in facilitating transporting goods from place to place.
The major actors of the illegal traders preferred night time for conducting their criminal act and utilize the hooligans to facilitate the illegal business through cross border trade. They pay heavy scarify up to their death to protect the illegally transported goods from the law enforcing bodies.
Most youth engaged in this illegal act are drug addicted and when their emotion is elevated to the higher level, they get courage to involve in such criminal acts. Illegal trade not only harms the nation economy but also forces the youth to deviate from the social norm and spend their time in the unproductive criminal activities.
The organized youth in order to conduct their ill gains business resorted to agitate the community members residing areas where the illegal goods are transported and create mob and close the road so that, when the law enforcement bodies preoccupied in settling the mob, they easily transport the goods to the border areas. Not only these, the youth utilize the public institutions vehicles and ambulances to transport the goods for cross border trade. Even government vehicles also involved transporting illegal goods.
Some air and sea transport providing institutions which have immunity not to be checked at the check points also found transporting goods from the country towards the neighboring countries and bringing illegal goods from abroad. The house of peoples representatives endorsed proclamation number 859/2006 which deals the illegal cross border trade. According to the proclamation, if a person found guilty of illegal trade will be subjected to the administrative measures, confiscation of the illegal commodities and to be fined up to 15 years of imprisonment.
The Custom Commission in the last four years has been taking various measures to contain illegal trade. It punished illegal traders by confiscating their illegal goods and left them bankruptcy. Nevertheless, the escalating illegal trade is growing from time to time hammering the economy.
Places that are identified as the most illegal trade transition are Somali Region, Dire Dawa town and its surrounding areas. It is proved that, high volume of illegal goods is transacted in these areas. The community members and other government workers also engaged in the illegal trade. In addition, the areas are the place the “chat” product is illegally transported to the neighboring countries of Djibouti and Somalia.
The places identified as the second vulnerable to illegal trade is the Southern, Nation, Nationalities and Peoples region and Southern Oromya in Moyale, and Shashemene towns. The places serve as corridor for illegally exporting agricultural products to the neighboring countries and to import electronic products from the mentioned countries. The third area categorized as corridor for illegal trade is the northern part of Ethiopia which includes Amhara and Tigray regions. The areas are identified as the very corridor of arm smuggling.
According to Mulugeta, in Ethiopia the economic, social and political factors pose the emerging of illegal trade. Searching for wealth and gaining wealth through short cut means can be mentioned as economic factors. Illegal commodities transacted along ethnic, religion, linguistic line and kinship with the people residing in the neighboring countries and such type of business activities can be categorized as social factor.
As to Mulugeta, among some members of the society, illegal trade is regarded as permissible business activity and this created havoc in enforcing laws which again aggravate the problem. Activities carried out by criminals and other interest groups to meddle against the political establishment through laundering illegal arms can be mentioned as political factors. There are also factors which exacerbate the situation and illegal trade affects both individual’s income and the government revenue collecting capacity.
The illegally imported goods and commodities directly affect the producing industries and put them in to bankruptcy and lying off their workers. On the other hand, some medicines imported illegally critically affects human health. Some patients due to using illegally imported medicines lost their sites. In the eastern part of Ethiopia looking the illegally imported medicines in pharmacy is common. Illegal trade is darkening the youth future. It also has a power to make a country to be failed state.
Sadly some diplomats with immunity from checking in the check points found bringing heavy and endangered weapon to the country. Anti- illegal trade commission is established at national level but it did not fully engaged in containing the criminal activities and such gaps further complicated the matter. Factors that can be mentioned responsible to the exacerbating of illegal trade are, the tax imposed at the custom office, shortage of hard currency that can be used for the importation of goods and the capacity limitation of the institutions.
The cumbersome procedure witnessed in the Judiciary system from criminal investigation up to prosecuting also can be mentioned as inhibitive factor in mitigating illegal trade. Only in the last 8 months more than 1000 suspects are prosecuted because of the involvement in illegal trade. Even though these people are arrested and put in the police custody till now no detail investigation is carried out and none of them are prosecuted which intern, escalates the problem.
Hence, restructuring the law enforcement bodies, improving policies and working with the collaboration of neighboring countries plays pivotal role in mitigating the problem. Reorganizing institutions, and strengthening them by well- trained man power and technology also is essential. He further said that, the commission is preparing to utilize technology helpful to supervise the board members activities.
Recently when Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed gave response to the parliamentarians said that in the last budget year the Beneshangul –Gumuz region supplied 20 quint of gold to the National Bank of Ethiopia however, due to the escalating illegal trade the region in this budget year could supply to the National Bank only 3 quint and this clearly shows how the matter is worrisome.
Ethiopia is a developing country aspires to attain economic development and to that end it needs to boost its export so that enable to import capital goods for the expansion of manufacturing. However, due to week law enforcing capacity the agriculture and mining products illegally go to the neighboring countries in which the practice deters the nation ambition to achieve economic growth.
Ethiopia hardly needs foreign currency for its economic activities but due to the rampant corruption and in the in efficient institution the nation pay price by losing crucial wealth illegally. Therefore, the pertinent institutions should strengthen their effort to put the culprits in to accountability
BY ABEBE WOLDEGIRGIS
THE ETHIOPIAN HERALD FRIDAY 21 JULY 2023
