Trafficking of young girls and women

As is the case with most developing countries, the rate of population growth in Ethiopia outstrips the rate of economic growth, resulting in an increased level of unemployment. This coupled with increased demand for cheap labor in developed countries has pushed many young men and women to leave the country in search of employment. According to the Ethiopian Government’s Security Immigration and Refugee Affairs Authority, the number of migrant workers leaving the country increased from an average of 23 per month in 1996 to 410 per month in 1999 ( Belayneh 2003 ). Illegal migration in Ethiopia mainly focuses on the trafficking of young women to Middle-Eastern countries.

Women have especially become vulnerable to trafficking as a result of their continued exploitation in the country along with their limited access to education and employment opportunities. Increasing social disintegration of families due to war and poverty has also increased women’s traditional burden of taking care of their families including their parents and siblings. This in turn has created an added burden to generate income. Inherently, the types of job opportunities offered in the Middle East—predominately domestic helpers and sex workers—also reinforces the gender bias.

Trafficking as defined by the UN protocol is: ‘The recruitment, transportation, transfer, harboring or receipt of persons, by the threat or use of force, by abduction, fraud, deception, coercion or the abuse of power or by the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person for the purpose of exploitation’ ( UNCJIN 2000 ). In the case of Ethiopia, trafficking mostly takes the form of transporting migrants by fraud, deception and different forms of coercion. In this regard, many young girls have become victims of trafficking by illegal agents who claim to have established contacts with employers. According to the International Organization for Migration (IOM), 72 per cent of the Ethiopian surveyed migrants used the services of both illegal and legal employment agents for the process of migration. Of these, 60 per cent used illegal agents, 20 per cent used legal agents, and 20 per cent did not know the status of the agents they used ( Messele 2003 ).

Women’s vulnerability has not been limited to trafficking alone but also to violence and violation of their rights upon arrival in the country of destination. It has now become common practice for women migrants to be asked or forced to perform other duties outside of the contract, such as prostitution. Lured by their desire to send remittances to their families and the empty promises of their traffickers, many young migrants now face various forms of persecution in the hands of their ‘owners’. Having given up their freedom of movement, they have become vulnerable to physical as well as mental torture. It is reported that many sponsors keep employees’ travel documents as a means of guaranteeing continued service ( Rifkallal 2003 ).

Weakness in the Ethiopian legal structure has further exposed women to exploitation. The Ethiopian Penal Code defines trafficking in ‘women, infants and young persons’ narrowly without considering other forms of trafficking. According to Article 605 of the Penal Code, the term trafficker refers to a person who transports women, infants and young people out of the country illegally by enticing them or otherwise inducing them to engage in prostitution. Labor trafficking, which does not fall under the ‘prostitution’ category, is thus not given due attention and cannot be used to bring illegal traffickers of labor to justice. However, new policies are being formulated and the government of Ethiopia is now engaging in various endeavors to protect the rights of its citizens in the Diaspora. In this regard, the Private Employment Agency Proclamation No. 104/1998 ( Hagos 2003 ) was a step forward. On the basis of this proclamation, Ethiopians can only migrate in search of employment opportunities through legal employment agencies or by direct employment contracts with employers ( Hagos 2003 ). The Ethiopian government through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs also created the General Directorate in charge of Ethiopian Expatriates Affairs in January 2002. Through this body, Ethiopian migrants are encouraged to return, participate in national affairs, mobilize the Ethiopian community abroad, conduct researches, etc. However, there is more work that needs to be done to ensure the protection of the rights of migrants.

Another major obstacle to monitoring the well-being of the trafficked women is their change in identity. Almost all the women migrants to Middle-Eastern countries with Christian names tend to change their names to Muslim names to facilitate the visa process. However, this poses a great challenge for the Ethiopian government to trace the migrants as they have two identities (the names they are known by in Ethiopia and the names they are known by in the destination country).

Though having bilateral agreements is the best way of ensuring the protection of migrants, they are not easy to secure, mainly due to the unbalanced national interest of the sending and receiving countries. However, efforts are being made at both ends. An Ethiopian embassy has now been established in most of these countries, and the Ethiopian community is also trying to cooperate and make their voices heard. Different governmental and non-governmental organizations using schools and other social forums as entry points are currently undertaking awareness-raising campaigns to make sufficient information available to potential migrants and thus minimize their risks.