EU-IOM Joint Initiative

for Migrant Protection and Reintegration

As they have for many years, scores of Ethiopians left the country in 2019 in search of economic opportunities. Some used formal channels thanks to bilateral labour agreements with the likes of the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Jordan which provide for the hire of agreed numbers of workers from Ethiopia.

However, the vast majority of Ethiopians travel informally, as irregular migrants. Of those making their way out of the country, many return within the first year having run into problems either in transit or in the destination countries.

The numbers are significant. Over 130,000 people returned to Ethiopia in 2019. The majority, 120,825, came from Saudi Arabia, followed by 4,213 and 3,747 migrants from Djibouti and Yemen respectively.

To date, IOM has registered more than 60,000 Ethiopian returnees in 2020, largely due to the onset of COVID-19. Since April 2020 alone more than 25,000 returnees have arrived from Sudan, Djibouti, Somalia and the Gulf states.

The task of reintegrating returnees largely falls to the Bureau of Labour and Social Affairs (BoLSA), a government department operating at both federal and local levels.

“It takes a lot of government and other stakeholder effort and coordination to ensure the reintegration of migrant returnees,” says Mohammed Tebu, the deputy head of the bureau in Oromia. “There is a lot of demand in Oromia because of the high returnee numbers in this area.”

Working closely with BoLSA in the regions receiving the most returnees — Amhara, Tigray, Southern Nations Nationalities and Peoples’ regional states, and Oromia — is the EU-IOM Joint Initiative for Migrant Protection and Reintegration in the Horn of Africa.

The programme has assisted the government lay the foundation for sustainable reintegration assistance, funding the hire of 12 reintegration staff to the bureau in Amhara, Oromia and Tigray.

Each of these offices now has a designated unit providing reintegration assistance to returning migrants. The staff, under the supervision of BoLSA at the local level, coordinate, support follow-up and monitor the reintegration assistance provided to returnees and their families.

One such returnee is Amare from Dera, North Shewa, in Amhara regional state. He and three other returnees have opened a flour mill with assistance from the EU-IOM Joint Initiative. The 35-year-old father of four recently returned from the port city of Bossaso in Puntland, from where he was hoping to cross the Gulf of Aden en-route to the Gulf states in search of better economic opportunities.

“Our town is home to many youth attempting migration and hosts many more migrants returned by the government,” he says. “We are grateful for the startup assistance. We have since bought land, established the flour mill business and promoted our service to the community.”

Tebu describes the level of cooperation among the various parties as invaluable but says there is still a lot to do. “To date, the assistance to returnees lacks standard operating procedures. This contributes to the limited structured assistance and coordination by government and other stakeholders involved,” he says.

IOM is developing a process that will clarify the reintegration processes in Ethiopia, as well as the roles and responsibilities of the different actors involved. This is being done in consultation with the national protection working group with funding from the EU-IOM Joint Initiative. The working group is one of the pillars of the National Anti-Trafficking and Smuggling Taskforce, chaired by the Federal Attorney General, that works towards the effective management of labour migration.

Migration and the reintegration of migrant returnees are among the key agenda items for the Government of Ethiopia. Bilateral discussions are regularly held with host countries to ensure the protection of Ethiopian migrant workers as well as the safe and dignified return of those wishing to make their way back home.

However, COVID-19 has presented the country with the unexpected challenge of mass returns from various countries. “Returnees are coming in numbers beyond the capacity of the region,” Tebu says. “Oromia region has received around 2,500 returnees via international flights and a similar number returned through borders of neighbouring countries.”

In line with IOM’s mandate of managing migration for the benefit of both migrants and their communities, it is hoped that recent efforts will create a structure through which returnees can re-establish their lives.

About the EU-IOM Joint Initiative

Launched in December 2016 with the support of the European Union (EU) 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.

The story was written by Helina Mengistu, Senior Project Communications Assistant and Wilson Johwa, Regional Communications Officer, EU-IOM Joint Initiative.