The burdens of refugee influx in Ethiopia
Tesfaye Lemma
The United Nations Higher Commission for Refugees said that, there are a number of refugees in the Horn region, flee to Somalia, Sudan, Ethiopia and Djibouti. Prior to the outbreak of conflict, Yemen was one of the host countries for refugees where there were an estimated 250, 000 refuges from the Horn region. Nowadays, the history has changed that, a number of Yemeni seeks asylum and shelter in countries in the Horn.
The African Refugee Convention has been widely praised for its liberal approach to protection. It expands the definition of a refugee, broadens the principle of non-renouncement and endorses the principles of voluntary repatriation and international burden-sharing.
African countries couldn’t close their borders for refugees. If they do that there would be a number of people who could suffer a lot. Rather, they need to devise a mechanism that could help them to monitor the influx of refugees in connection to their internal peace and stability.
Displacement crises in Africa are generally considered less newsworthy than those in Europe. But they are more devastating. The Horn region has now become one of the exemplary in this regard. There should be a mechanism to assure whether some anti peace elements come with them in their destructive aims or not. There should be some sort of safe, legal avenues.
One of the major causes of the displacement of people in the Horn of Africa is mainly due to armed conflicts. Wars have been raging in that region for the last solid forty years with tragic consequences for human life and economic progress. Lack of security and stability in southern Sudan forced hundreds of people to flee into neighboring countries like Ethiopia.
The 2016 UNHCR report indicated that, Ethiopia is among the largest refugee-hosting countries in Africa, sheltering some 800,000 refugees. There are also refugees coming from the war stricken Yemen. The escalated internal fighting and the interference of external forces caused estimated 21.4 million people deserving humanitarian protection or assistance among these about 100,000 people fled elsewhere.
The increasing number of refugees not only created a heavy economic burden on the relatively poor and economically underdeveloped communities, but also led to strained political relations among governments. There is now a deep-seated security concern emanating from the tragic developments. It is obvious that, the wars in this region have cause related to poverty. Therefore, the possible solution could be focusing on uprooting poverty, which is the major cause of such problems.
It is argued that, one practical step to defuse the situation is to look for economic integration among countries and solving political solutions for essentially political problems. Establishing economic cooperation with a view to create a future common political and economic community in the Horn region would be so crucial to curb the problem.
It is obvious that, the Horn of Africa comprises Djibouti, Somalia, Ethiopia, Sudan, and the northern region of Kenya. It is a region of great strategic importance. Strictly speaking, only Djibouti, Ethiopia and Somalia comprise the core of the Horn. The problems affecting the region are incomprehensible without analytical recourse to the designs and ambitions of superpowers in the region. There was a severe war almost for forty years.
With the exception of Kenya and Djibouti, the countries of this region have endured a long period of turmoil and civil war, which have resulted in great human suffering and the largest number of refugees in the African continent particularly.
Previously, there was a lack of cooperation among the countries in the region. However, this is now improving from time to time, but still there are war, conflicting and persuading situations that aggravate the flow of refugees from Eritrea, South Sudan and Somalia to other neighboring countries. These situations have aggravated the influx of refugees in the region. According to available documents, the burden is mainly going to Ethiopia.
Ethiopia has been working hard to ensure its economic growth so as to feed its citizens since the coming of the developmental government into power, which emanated from the public nature of the government.
The Ethiopian government also gave a serious attention to people in the region. As a result, it usually scarify for the well-being of people regardless of their origin. This is the fact that, the United Nations Refugee Agency has confirmed. It has lauded Ethiopia for its commitment in hosting and caring refugees and providing basic needs.
According to reports from the UNHCR, the country is prominent for its open door policy towards refugees and asylum seekers for centuries that the international community usually appreciates its generosity.
It is believed that the refugee hosting communities must be commended for their generous hospitality and continued support. As a result, the number of refugees has been hiking from time to time. It would not be easy for the country to accommodate unless it gets meaningful support from the international community.
In fact, Ethiopia has continued its effort to improve the level of protection and support to refugees. It would contribute everything it could in order to create a conducive atmosphere for the refugees to feel at home. Many of the also believed that Ethiopia is their second motherland due to the care taken by the government and the freedom they enjoy in the country without any discrimination from Ethiopia citizens.
Aradom, 35, is an Eritrean refugee residing in Ethiopia. He said, “Before I came to Ethiopia, I heard that, the Ethiopian government never gives shelter to Eritreans and even considered them as enemies. However, I learned that was erroneous of purposelessly fabricated. I came with three other friends two years ago, but we are now living with full freedom like any other Ethiopian citizens.”
In fact, Ethiopia is doing its level best at the moment to help all refugees regardless of their origin. It is surprising that at the juncture where other developed countries have refused to accommodate the refugees, Ethiopia persisted helping refuges with all its potential. This is a historical and distinguished deed which has to be recommended by the international community.
It introduced the out-of-camp policy, which granted ample opportunities for many of the refugees. There are urban refugees in Ethiopia, who came from countries like Eritrea, Burundi, Congo, Rwanda, Yemen and Djibouti. Ethiopia’s out-of-camp policy has significantly helped refugees who need special medical attention and serious protection concerns.
There are other stakeholders caring for refugees in Ethiopia including the United Nations Higher Commission for Refugees. These stakeholders collaborate with Ethiopia in providing basic assistance and services to refugees and asylum seekers, including registration, documentation, shelter, food, water, sanitation, health, education, training and livelihood support.
Available documents indicated that, there are about twenty five refugee camps in the country so far. As the influx of refugees is highly increasing from time to time, there is still a significant need to launch additional refugee camps in regions where number of refugees increased.
In fact, in some countries, people displacing from their very origin either internally or externally has been showing the downward projection. This is true in the case of Somalia. As the consolidated efforts to realize peace and stability has becom fruitful in Somalis, the situation persuaded Somali people to stay in their lands. Therefore, the number of the Somali people, displacing into Ethiopia has been showing a decreasing number from the previous times.
This is highly interconnected with the weakening of Al-Shabab by AMISOM forces. Its impact to pose any serious threat is already minimized. Due to that fact, there are significant improvements as far as Somali refugees are concerned.
In contrary to the decrease of the number of Somali refugees in Ethiopia, the number of Eritrean refugees is ever been rising from time to time. Hundreds of Eritrean people are fleeing their country daily due to the human rights abuses and forced militarization. In any of these cases, there are a number of burdens on Ethiopia as the majority of refugees in the region influx into Ethiopia.