Smuggling - "The procurement, in order to obtain, directly or indirectly, a financial or other material benefit, of the illegal entry of a person into a State Party of which the person is not a national or a permanent resident”

- IOM Key Migration Terms

Tempted by the new house that his neighbors could afford and propelled by his dreams for a better life, Ahmed left his motherland imagining that he would get better opportunities when he arrived in the Middle East. The opposing reality could not have been more palpable. This 21-year-old young man from the northern part of Ethiopia paid smugglers to transport him across the Red Sea. This is when his traumatic ordeal began. Never in his life could he imagine the inhuman tribulations that he was about to face.

Ahmed, together with fellow countrymen, recounted to IOM how they were handed over to multiple smugglers en route to the Middle East, and upon crossing over to Yemen, were tortured for extortion and ransom. Those who were able to provide the sum were free to go but the unlucky ones were “taken to a place called Jebel where they were hung upside down and beaten with chains.”  He witnessed how men and women alike were raped in front of them and added,  “they also forced us to torture one another by melting plastic materials on each other’s bodies, even dousing a companion with inflammable liquid and setting him ablaze.” He recounted how his torturers tried to strip him of his identity: “I felt as if I had no country.”  Jumping from one torture detail to another, he stated how “my humanity was taken away from me.”

Now that Ahmed is back in Ethiopia, and though deeply grateful to be alive, his worries extend to his family who lost everything, including their house and cattle – their source of livelihood – to pay the ransom money. With no money to offer his family, he solemnly asks himself: “What are we going to do now and how do we pick up the pieces of our lives?”

Human trafficking and smuggling are crimes that beleaguer countries worldwide. In Ethiopia – a country of origin and transit for three major migration routes (Northern, Southern, and Eastern) – through the technical assistance of IOM and other organizations, the Government of Ethiopia (GoE) has bolstered its legal framework to fight this phenomenon. Proclamation 909/2015 entered into force in August 2015. The new legislation levies harsh penalties against traffickers and smugglers and focuses on safeguarding the fundamental rights and dignity of migrants in the country and within the region.

Ahmed is one of the fortunate Ethiopian smuggled migrants that were evacuated from war-torn Yemen in April 2016 through the combined efforts of IOM and the GoE. To date, the current evacuation operation has returned 1,220 migrants through the IOM emergency funding sponsored by DFID, ECHO, the US State Department, Sida, UN CERF and USAIM.

Like Ahmed, many Ethiopians are still choosing the Eastern Migratory route and are falling into the hands of preying traffickers. The Regional Mixed Migration Secretariat 2016 Report states that the total estimated number of migrants who crossed the Gulf of Aden, using 110 boats, in March 2016 alone is 10,424. Of this total, 83% were Ethiopians. Furthermore, the report states that a 35% increase in arrivals was recorded from those of February 2016.

*Name changed to ensure privacy and confidentiality.

For further information, please contact Alemayehu Seifeselassie at IOM Ethiopia, Tel: +251.11.6611117 (Ext. 455), Mobile: +251.91.1639082 Email: salemayehu@iom.int