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Authorities say 35,000 undocumented Ethiopians have so far been repatriated, as the 90 day Saudi Arabian government amnesty deadline for illegal migrants to return expires on June 27.
Minister of Ethiopian Government Communication Affairs Office, Negeri Lencho, made this known while addressing newsmen in Addis Ababa, on Friday.
Lencho said that another 85,000 undocumented Ethiopians have taken travel documents to be repatriated from Saudi Arabia.
However, analysts said both figures are still a minority of the estimated 400,000 undocumented Ethiopians living in the Middle East’s largest economy in jobs ranging from maids to construction sites.
With a growing population currently at around 30 million and a squeeze in international oil price, Saudi Arabia is on a drive to indigenes its work force currently dominated by millions of illegal and legal migrants.
The deadline recalled painful memories of Ethiopians in the last deportation debacle in November 2013 when a deportation round by Saudi authorities on illegal migrants left many Ethiopians in Saudi detention camps and returned home penniless.
Ethiopian government has already dispatched a dozen diplomats in its embassy in Riyadh and consular offices in other Saudi cities to give consular advice to stranded Ethiopians.
With an eye to curb illegal migration, the Ethiopian government in May signed an agreement with Saudi Arabia government for an overseas employment agreement to help future legal Ethiopian migrants.
It has also put advertorials in Ethiopian electronic media urging relatives of Ethiopians illegally residing in Saudi Arabia to persuade them to return ahead of the expiry of the Amnesty deadline. (Xinhua/NAN)
