Ethiopians in the Middle East

She was paralyzed from her neck down to her feet.

Even more, she got a rumbling mind that she kept crying and insulting all
day. I recall how her parents were devastated by her condition, as they expected her to win her
life and then to be a role model to her siblings. After battling with all sorts of complications and
excruciating pains for months, she finally passed away, leaving behind a psychological scar to
the family. The scar was the result of their guilt for allowing her to leave for the Middle East
while they were and still are the richest persons in their town.

Following her death, I started thinking about questions such as these: why did she left for an
Arab country in the first place while having a decent quality of life with her parents? How and
why a person of her age threw self from the top of a building? Why did the people who lived with
her, including her employer, failed to understand her condition ahead and intervene to save her
life? Who should be held responsible for her untimely death? No body answered my questions as
I never shared them with anybody until I joined Addis Ababa University for my undergraduate
studies. There and then, I discussed the issue with my good-hearted friends. After our
discussion, I understood that the issue has personal, familial, societal, economical, and political
dimensions.

After more than two decades now, thousands of Ethiopian youngsters leave for that oil-
pampered region called the Middle East. There is no credible statistics about their exact number
but some estimates put it in hundreds of thousands. Of those who leave Ethiopia, a few appear
to lead a successful life, turning themselves in to accomplished traders, investors, and brokers. A
limited number of them are able to send some dollars to their family back home. These two
groups of immigrants are the ones who attract the ears and the eyes of millions of young
Ethiopians back home. The latter hear about the former’s success stories and want to do the
same by all means. Their dreamlands are countries of the Middle East. Attracted by the good
stories and of course won by the persuasive propaganda’s of irresponsible travel agents, they
make all the sacrifices required (such as getting Islamic names and borrowing money for their
travels) to head for the Arab world. The root cause is of course poverty and these days starvation
back home.

The majority, who are from rural Ethiopia, find themselves at a higher risk. Several are being
killed by their employers for a whole number of reasons. Several others are committing suicide
just to shorten the incomprehensible earthly suffering. Several others are, due to abuses of all
sorts, getting physically and psychologically incapacitated. Since, recently, there are some others
who start to kill their employers. By all accounts, the region is the most inhospitable spot on
earth to Ethiopian women. Being an immigrant woman and a housemaid is nothing but being a
piece of moving object created to serve some Arabs. This is what disturbs my mind. The horrors
of our sisters should be heard loud and clear by all freedom-loving people. I am neither belittling
the Arabs nor their culture and religion. I am against the incredible cruelty some of them have
against our sisters.

I believe in the free movement of people as it is their natural right. What am concerned about is
that 1) job opportunities to rural youth are extremely limited, 2) our sisters do not get first-hand
genuine information about work conditions, salaries, and modes of life in the Middle East before
their departure, and 3) the Ethiopian government and other agencies do not work hard to
safeguard the safety and security of youngsters once they start working and living in the Middle
East.

Still, the problem is too big to be ignored. I believe that this problem is manmade and can be
solved. I identified three mitigating strategies and one permanent solution. These are just few of
the many alternative approaches that might exist out there; having some to initiate discussion is
helpful.

The rural youth leave Ethiopia mainly for economic reasons. There must be a policy that makes
sure rural youngsters have something to make for their living. The government focuses on
‘empowering’ urban youth; equal intervention must be taken to enable rural youth to cope up
with the cost of living. Rather than forcing kids to pass through a protracted process of joining
university, many of them must be trained in some of the key vocations. The quality of education
and training must be significantly improved so that students acquire needed competencies and
skills. Be it in agriculture or the service sector, there must be an attractive opportunity for the
youth. If there is for the youth something to hang out with, they may not have that burning
desire to leave and die in a foreign land. We could then think of banning such unproductive
travels entirely.

Rural youngsters are leaving. The educated are leaving. Business people are leaving. Even senior
citizens start to ask asylum in the West. Who has the decision to remain back home? Because of
this scale of migration, the future potential of the nation seems highly compromised. Banning
migration is illegal and is impossible. But when it is done to avert catastrophes such as what
happens in the Middle East, it has a moral justification. In a way, a ban of the sort is tantamount
to saving thousands of lives every year. Given the current handling of Ethiopian youngsters by
the Arabs, and given the absence or lack of regulatory mechanisms from our embassies, it is
justified to ban immigration to that region at least until the Arabs enforce laws that protect the
rights of employees. Before the ban, we have to create employment opportunities back home.

If the aforementioned mechanisms appear impractical for whatever reasons, we could eye on
providing timely information to potential travelers so that they could make informed decisions.
Urban youth appear at an advantage when it comes to knowing the goods and evils of going to
the desert ‘oases’. The rural youth, who are dominating the exodus now, do not have a vivid
understanding of urban life. They even are ‘aliens’ to life and living in Addis and in other major
cities and towns in Ethiopia. They have no clue when it comes to 1) communicating with
foreigners, 2) managing modern house chores, 3) salary and workload, and 4) living conditions
and abuses such as rapes and punishments in the Middle East. The media, parents, friends, the
government, and other civic organizations must explain these and other issues to those who
think of flights. The information should be provided in such a fashion that it discourages illegal
and even legal travels. Or, the information should help them to make informed decisions.

If we still believe in the right of Arabs to possess our sisters as slaves, we have to play different.
The role of Ethiopian embassies is crucial here. I heard that some sort of contract is being
entered between employers/brokers and employees in Addis. But that does not translate into
action. Compared to immigrants from other countries, Ethiopian housemaids are paid the least
salaries. Are we any cheaper? We are of course one of hard-working and smart workforce in the
world, with astounding success and work ethic. The problem is that there is nobody who could
fight on behalf of our rural youngsters. They do not have the language and
communication/argumentation skill to face their employers. Their embassy is supposed to make
deals on their behalf. I am not saying that our embassies in the Middle East are totally idle on
this matter; I am saying that their contribution is hardly noticeable. To me, there is no more
pressing need for an embassy than to intervene between life and death.

My suggestion to our embassies there is that they should make deals with employers on a whole
set of issues related to employees. One, they should make sure Ethiopians are employed at the
same salary scale as other immigrants are employed. Two, the embassies must ensure that at
least the minimum work conditions are fulfilled. Three, they should come up with a mechanism
to ensure the timely payment of salaries. Four, bring to the courts those employers who abuse
their employees. Five, create a sort of association for Ethiopian immigrants so that it could be
tasked to follow up on the daily conditions of its members. Six, stop advertising that you would
bring cheap labor from Ethiopia. This sort of ads makes you appear even cheaper before Arab
eyes. If you have to advertise, tell potential employers that you could bring them youngsters for
employment on a competitive basis. Seven, do not consider political affiliation while helping
immigrants. There are other places and scenarios where and when playing politics does not cost,
at least in terms of human life. These sorts of efforts along with international pressure making
would bring good results.

Our embassies are too limited in their capacities to deal with this problem alone. The Ethiopian
government, the Diaspora, political parties, civic organizations, and religious institutions must
create a unified front to pressurize Arabs to respect international conventions related to human
rights and employment. Open letters addressed to governments, employment organizations and
their embassies must be written. The approach must be as diplomatic as possible. If
governments and employers do not listen to our cries, threaten to disclose their worst handling
of human rights to international media and organizations. Indeed, it is useful to attract the
attention of the ILO, the UN, the EU, the US, and other multinational corporations. If the cry is
loud and full of evidence, we might be heard and we could bring some change. Similarly,
scholars should be invited to conduct studies that explore the daily horrors of hundreds of
thousands of Ethiopians. Based on empirical evidence, interest and pressure groups could be
easily formed and maintained.

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The writer could be reached at [email protected] and also blogs at
http://tekluabate.blogspot.no/.