Saudi Arabia has expelled nearly 3,000 Ethiopian migrants in recent weeks, despite fears that such operations could accelerate the spread of the coronavirus in the country of the Horn of Africa, the United Nations announced on Monday (April 13th).
Since mid-March, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) has registered 2,870 Ethiopian returnees, and all but 100 have been expelled from Saudi Arabia, said the IOM spokesperson in Ethiopia, Alemayehu Seifeselassie. A humanitarian worker familiar with the situation of the deportees told AFP, on condition of anonymity, that"About 3000" returnees had arrived from Saudi Arabia in the past ten days.
"The expulsion and deportation of Ethiopian migrants in an irregular situation, when their country's response to Covid-19 is not ready, puts them in danger", writes Catherine Sozi, United Nations humanitarian coordinator for Ethiopia, in a document read by the AFP on Monday. Migrants are held in detention centers in Saudi Arabia before being returned to Ethiopia. And it is unclear to what extent the Saudi authorities screen them for the symptoms of Covid-19.
A two week break
The Ethiopian government has called for an end to these evictions until it can set up 30 quarantine centers in Addis Ababa, says Mme Sozi. But the evictions continued, while "Only seven quarantine centers can accommodate returnees" and "A lot of work remains to be done" for Ethiopian quarantine centers to comply with World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines, says Mme Sozi.
According to the IOM, up to half a million Ethiopians were in Saudi Arabia when the authorities of that country launched a campaign against illegal immigration in 2017. Since then, approximately 10,000 Ethiopians have been expelled each months, including January and February of this year. Aid workers interviewed by the AFP said there had been a two-week pause in the evictions from the time Ethiopia announced its first Covid-19 case on March 13. But repatriation flights have since resumed.
“These migrants are very vulnerable. They return to Ethiopia with great medical needs ”, says the humanitarian. Ethiopia has reported only 74 cases of Covid-19 and three deaths (compared with 4,934 cases and 65 deaths in Saudi Arabia), but tests remain limited and experts fear that the country's weak health system will be quickly overwhelmed by an influx of cases.
