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National mobilization is needed to stop illegal migration

National mobilization is needed to stop illegal migration

Taye Kebede 07-08-16

The issue we are raising here has to do with the awful thing called illegal migration ( some call it odyssey to modern slavery), and will say a few words seeing as how the number of Ethiopians migrating through Yemen has increased more than any time ever before.

Ethiopians that went to Arab countries with the legal paper work goes through hellish road inhumane treatment and pain, and more than anything else, they lose their lives. Although various efforts were made on the side of the government, any hint of change hasn’t come yet. Illegal migration and illegal agents led complicated migration tracks have very much increased.

The fact that the number of death and danger our people are going through has increased in huge digit is being told by the whole world and then told to us. However, there has been no inclination from us to acknowledge this hard fact truth. Two years ago there were so much talk of a ban to from going to Arab countries- but it didn’t become anything more than some talk.

As we have heard during 2013, the number of Ethiopians that have entered into Yemen was 50 thousand. And a year later we were told that the number has reached 70 thousand – and we were shocked. This was not the end of it – the number has increased and we were told that 802 thousand Ethiopians have migrated last year. And how about this year?

According to United Nations report, within nine moth of this year (September to May), more than 82thousand Ethiopians have entered into Yemen. And the report states that the number has went over the number of migrants registered. And 10 Ethiopians die every month going through the murky migration route.

South Africa is a country seen as a paradise, but a trap to young people who feel victim for migration. The fact that many people seduced by the Idea of going to South Africa actually decides to go there by either dropping out of their school or stopping their farming work by selling their possessions and leaving behind their families to end up on a death track manipulated by illegal agents can be seen by going and asking in Kembata Tembaro and Hadiya zones – people can go those areas and can ask, but the good thing they will listen will be from only in four houses.

What makes the migration in these areas all the more infuriating is the fact that it is backed by the blessings of religious leaders. It is usual to hear a story on how many went away from the zones manipulated by illegal agents, and by the blessings of religious fathers, being told it is time for them to go to South Africa.

After evaluating the national illegal migration prevention activity through cite visit very recently, members of the Ethiopian National Taskforce Council for Illegal Migration said that seeing the people who have decided to illegally migrate from Kembata Tembaro and Hadiya zone has pushed the issue to a concerning level. Although the group says that the integrated campaign to stop the issue through the structure setup from region to kebele has shown hope, they haven’t been able to control the outpour of people.

The fact that the number of parents that send their children to their deaths seduced by the wealth very few young people gained from their painful migration to foreign lands instead of learning from the cries of the many mothers who have lose their children shows that problem of attitude has taken root. The attitude problem in Kembata and Hadiya goes as far as the parents of the migrant asking a girl a hand in marriage for their child living aboard.

The number of young people in Kembata and Hadiya who dream about South Africa is huge. The desire to go to South Africa is all the same in every sect of the society; be it between student, and a farmer or between teacher of a public servant – all the same, and all have the desire to go there one day.

 In the event their teachers left for abroad, the students say that their teachers have gone to South Africa to be a wealthy man, whilst at the same time contemplating about going there illegally by dropping out of school.

However, the fact that the teachers are presenting programs that tells about the plight of migration through mini-Medias as part of their job should be taken as positive experience. Messages like ‘Protect your selves from traffic accident, HIV/AIDS and illegal migration!’ have been the usual messages at schools. And such type of mobilization should spread throughout the country.

If there is a person that is able to send some money after surviving the grueling paths migrants take and the living there, he/she also sends some money to the religious fathers. And since what the religious fathers are doing is no different from sending young people to their death whilst collecting their money, they should look into themselves how they are carrying out their spiritual task, and the government should also look into it as well.

In a country where there are many parents that are losing contact with their children, the chance for children, women and elderly to get exposed to problem is high – and the social isolation is huge as well.

Why? just as the parents who send their children to South Africa loan the money to do so from relatives and close neighbors promising to pay back in two fold, they end up getting into a huge trouble when they are unable to pay back after something happens with their children they hoped will get them out of poverty – they end up losing their children and money.

We are seeing social crisis culminating from problems that forces women to see their assets and send their husbands and end up having to live in rent houses in urban cities and raising their children alone.

Why is this all happening? Is it because it’s impossible to work and change here? Or does it have to do with degraded morality that goes as far as saying ‘rather be an animal in US than a human here’? There is no way that this country can have anything to envy from South Africa and Yemen – the world has attested how it is the hope of Africa.

Economic experts interested in Africa have turned their attention towards Ethiopia. And they have good reason for this. ‘The Conversation’ website has written that Ethiopia is the only African country other than Rwanda that recorded sustainable economic development for the past ten years, adding the fact that the growth being non resource dependent makes it unique.

Personal income has grown by 8% from 2004 to 2014. At the said time, it was the highest one in Africa. The growth is mentioned in the construction and agriculture sectors. Every sector is growing by 11%, the production the manufacturing sector exports have grown by 11 fold. And this shows an economy that creates many job opportunities not only in our own country but for Africa as well is being built.

And anyone that wants to verify this should look at the Growth and Transformation Plan. The economist Kenchi Ohino said the plan is strictly integrated and have strategic direction. The reason why the manufacturing sector has gotten priority has to do with the huge resource, manpower the resource commands and because it is tied to the agriculture sector and have potential for foreign market. Out of these, the ones that needs large manpower and create job opportunities are textile, agro processing, leather products and construction sector.

And out of those that have benefited from indirect job creation by the sector includes air transport services, carton manufacturers and cold storage transport. Foreign investors instead of Ethiopians are getting involved in the sector; and their share neared 63% in 2012. So, leaving the country with such potential and opportunities for countries like South Africa and Yemen cannot be anything but moral degradation – and so there needs to be national mobilization to stop illegal migration.


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