In Ethiopia, IOM’s Migration Response Centres Are Providing a Lifeline to Vulnerable Migrants

Addis Ababa –Dozens of migrants, including women and children, are milling around the International Organization for Migration, Migration Response Centre (MRC) in Dire Dawa, Ethiopia. They had been stranded for months in Djibouti on their way to Yemen but have since returned home. 

At the MRC, such migrants are provided with vital humanitarian assistance including psychosocial, health and return and reintegration assistance. 

To protect migrants in need and to build the capacity of governments to respond to the protection challenges migrants face, IOM, together with its partners, has established a network of MRCs in the Horn of Africa and Yemen.

Working with the government in Ethiopia, IOM has established five such MRCs on strategic routes frequented by migrants where a range of life-saving services, including information highlighting the dangers of irregular migration, are being provided. 
 

“At this centre we provide meals, accommodation, transportation, family tracing and reunification support,” says Aron Manyumbu, Head of IOM Ethiopia’s Sub-Office in Dire Dawa, explaining how the IOM MRC in Dire Dawa is supporting vulnerable migrants, including those who arrive in dire conditions and needing medical referrals to save their lives.
 
“Because of extensive walks through hot temperature, and not having proper food and water for days, some of the migrants are weakened extensively when they reach the centre,” he elaborates, explaining how the provision of meals and accommodation at IOM’s migration response centre in Dire Dawa is vital.  
 

In addition to the centre in Dire Dawa, IOM has also set up similar facilities in Semera, in Afar region, Moyale, at the border with Kenya, Metema, at the border with Sudan, and Togochale, near Ethiopia’s border with Somalia. Of these, the Dire Dawa MRC has hosted 1,140 migrants in the first six months of 2022 alone. 

“We provide awareness raising sessions for the migrants to help them make informed decisions about their journey and to avoid falling prey to the extensive network of smugglers and traffickers who often extort them,” says Addise Mamo IOM Senior Programme Assistant at Metema Migration Response Centre. 

Similarly, the Metema Migration Response Centre, located adjacent to the Sudanese border, supports migrants who are intercepted while trying to cross to Sudan hoping to either find employment opportunities in that country or to head to Europe through Egypt or Libya. 

Previously, law enforcement agencies in Ethiopia did not always have the means to respond to the needs of vulnerable migrants trying to cross the border without proper documentation, and at times irregular migrants who were intercepted found themselves in detention together with dangerous criminals. 

However, IOM has been providing training and assistance to law enforcement bodies to help them to respond appropriately to migrants in vulnerable situations, leading to a gradual improvement in the way intercepted migrants are identified and assisted. 

IOM supported over 4,000 Ethiopian migrants at its MRCs in 2021 and the figure continues to increase, with 4,500 migrants already supported in the first half of 2022.
 
It is estimated that over 100,000 Ethiopians migrate irregularly annually, mostly to the Gulf states, in search of better employment opportunities. Many of these migrants face extreme hardships such as extortion and physical abuse from criminals as they travel through the eastern migration route, which crosses through Djibouti and Yemen. 

These hardships start at the initial stage, within their homeland, as the migrants must cross the extremely hot drylands of Afar region without much information. Ill prepared for the long journey, they often find themselves dehydrated and exposed leading to some fatalities before law-enforcement bodies get a chance to rescue them.

Young Ethiopian migrants are often lured by a network of facilitators or smugglers who promise them an easy crossing to a better life, only to lead them to a point along the journey where they are imprisoned by traffickers and extorted of their life savings.  

At times, this extortion drags in their families back home who are compelled to pay ransom fees for them to be released by the traffickers. Such episodes make returning home empty handed difficult, and a desire to pay back the debt pushes migrants to continue their journey despite any obstacles. 
In addition to the five migration response centres located at Ethiopia’s border areas, IOM also runs two transit centres in the capital, Addis Ababa. Here, vulnerable migrants who are returned to Ethiopia are registered, accommodated and fed, given medical check-ups and psychosocial support, as well as much needed humanitarian items for the duration of their stay, and onward transportation assistance to their homes and possible reintegration support. 

As limited economic opportunities is often the cause for irregular migration from Ethiopia, provision of reintegration support and alternative livelihood opportunities are among the many measures IOM is employing to help curb irregular migration. 

In 2021, close to 3,000 returnees who have passed through the IOM Transit Centres in Addis Ababa have benefited from the organization’s assistance to rebuild their lives back home, with thanks to the generous financial support extended by the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Italy Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Department of State's Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration (PRM) and the European Union (EU) Emergency Trust Fund for Africa (EUTF).
 

In line with the IOM led Regional Migrant Response Plan (MRP) and building on the principles outlined in the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly, and Regular Migration IOM seeks to respond to the humanitarian and protection needs of migrants moving along the Eastern migratory route, and  complement and strengthen the national responses of governments, ensuring risks and challenges for individuals and communities in countries of origin, transit and destination are addressed, while also reducing the incidence and impact of irregular migration.

Written by Alemayehu Seifeselassie, IOM Ethiopia