EU-IOM Joint Initiative

for Migrant Protection and Reintegration

Zouber is back in school and his family has been provided with the means to set up a retail shop.

His experiences on the migration journey may now appear to be in the distant past, yet the memories are strong.

Zouber was 16 when he and his friends migrated to Djibouti. “We had high expectations. We thought we could easily get used laptops, mobile phones and clothes that we could bring back home to sell. But we ended up on the streets of Djibouti with no food and shelter”.

Zouber now lives with his mother in Dire Dawa, 450 km from Djibouti’s port city of Obock. Dire Dawa is a city where young people are susceptible to the lure of irregular migration. Like Zouber, many children from Dire Dawa drop out of school and cross the border in search of better economic opportunities in Djibouti and the Gulf countries.

Since June 2017, more than 1,650 migrant children have returned to Ethiopia, and received reintegration assistance with support from the European Union (EU) through the EU-IOM Joint Initiative for Migrant Protection and Reintegration in the Horn of Africa. Over 1,000 of them have returned from Djibouti alone. 

Migrants on this route are exposed to different forms of hardship and abuse. They return home with the tell-tale signs of people who have survived extreme deprivation, as well as physical and mental abuse.

To support child returnees and other vulnerable children in the community, the EU-IOM Joint Initiative is working in partnership with the Bureau of Women, Children and Youth Affairs (BoWCYA), the Agency of Labour and Social Affairs (ALSA) and Positive action for Development (PAD), a local NGO in Dire Dawa.

The partnership is aimed at creating an enabling and protective environment that ensures the sustainable reintegration of vulnerable children and their families by providing economic, social, and psychosocial assistance.

At the core of the assistance provided is the engagement and strengthening of structures at grassroot level, such as Community Care Coalitions and Child Right Committees. These networks play a major role in ensuring the rights of children are protected and that support remains sustainable. Key activities include identifying children in need, conducting vulnerability assessments, establishing linkages, and referring cases to service providers in the area.

Close to 50 women in Dire Dawa are meeting and networking in five self-help groups established under the EU-IOM Joint Initiative. The groups provide a platform for mothers to share their experiences and to discuss strategies to support their children to settle down and focus on their education.

 “The experience of sharing among caregivers like us about our children’s past and current challenges, behaviours, improvements and other related issues is really benefiting us,” says Nuria, an active member of one of the self-help groups.

BoWCYA also provides specialized assistance to children, girls, and women at IOM’s migration response centre (MRC) in Dire Dawa. In addition, the families of child returnees, and the community of return in general, benefit from community projects supporting them economically, particularly with sending their children to school. Furthermore, additional social workers have been hired to enable BoWCYA to facilitate community projects and other assistance.

On their way to Djibouti, migrant children from other parts of Ethiopia often live on the streets of Dire Dewa to work and fund their journey. During this period, they are exposed to different forms of abuse and addiction.

The EU-IOM Joint Initiative is supporting ALSA with the renovation of its rehabilitation centre which will be used as a temporary shelter and space for the counselling of street children, returnees and other vulnerable minors. The programme has also provided a generator and other essential materials to the centre.

Children make up about a quarter of migrants on the Eastern Route to the Gulf States, through either Djibouti or Somalia.  A study commissioned by the EU-IOM Joint Initiative found that, in Djibouti City alone, a sizeable population of mainly Ethiopian migrant children lives on the streets. The programme contributed to the construction of an over-night shelter run in partnership with the charity Caritas Djibouti.

About the EU-IOM Joint Initiative

Launched in December 2016 and funded by the European Union Emergency Trust Fund for Africa, the programme brings together 26 African countries of the Sahel and Lake Chad region, the Horn of Africa, and North Africa, the EU and IOM around the goal of ensuring migration is safer, more informed, and better governed for both migrants and their communities.

For more information please contact Helina Mengistu at IOM Ethiopia, Tel: +252115571707 (Ex.1109), email: hmengistu@iom.int; or the IOM Regional Office in Nairobi: Julia Hartlieb, Tel: +254734988846, email: jhartlieb@iom.int and Wilson Johwa, Tel: +254204221112, email: wjohwa@iom.int