Credit to Ethiopia’s Open-Door Policy
Amen Teferi
June 20 was World Refugee Day. This year the UN observed the day in Gambella Ethiopia. The day w
as observed in a year when the worldwide number of refugees and forcibly displaced people reached a record 65 million of which more than half of the refugees are children. On the occasion of this year’s World Refugee Day, Ethiopia has pledges to further strengthen its support to refugees who wanted to get a place of safety in its territories.
The two African countries, Ethiopia and Uganda, are hosting the largest number of refugee. Thus, while European nations seek to limit the “economic” refugees as opposed to asylum seekers, Ethiopia, for example, is taking in thousands of refugees from neighboring countries and is praised for its open-door policy.
On June 21, 2017 Prime Minister Hailemariam Dessalegn had held talks with Filippo Grandi, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees where they have conferred on issues of refugees, peace and stability in the region and the PM has reaffirmed Ethiopia’s continued commitment to further strengthen its support for refugees.
Ethiopia is Africa’s largest refugee hosting country, with more than 850,000 registered refugees mostly from South Sudan, Somalia and Eritrea. Though the influx of refugees from Somalia has slackened, the increasing number of refugees from South Sudanese has triggered growing concerns that Ethiopia’s capacity to help displaced people may be overstretched. After hundreds of thousands of South Sudanese arrived in the country this year Ethiopia has overtaken Kenya and become Africa’s largest refugee-hosting country. Now the total refugee population has reached almost 1 million and this has raised concerns over its capacity to help displaced people may be overstretched.
Ethiopia, one of the fastest growing economies in the entire continent, is currently hosting more than 850,000refugees, becoming the world’s fifth largest refugee hosting country. Refugees in Ethiopia come mainly from South Sudan, Somalia and Eritrea. Earlier in November, the UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) said the total of South Sudanese refugees and asylum-seekers in Ethiopia is approximately 322,452. Civil war in the neighboring South Sudan is the main factor behind Ethiopia’s soaring refugee population. About 188,000 South Sudanese have arrived in Ethiopia since conflict erupted in December, bringing the total number in the country to 322,452. As well as coping with refugees from South Sudan, Ethiopia is seeing an increasing number coming from Eritrea. Eritreans are fleeing gross human right violations and a strictly enforced national service that requires all adults to spend most of their lives working for the government. This forced and open-ended military conscription and harsh government crackdown on free speech have escalated Eritrea’s refugee crisis which resulted in almost 170,000 people seeking refuge in Ethiopia.
Both crises are straining Ethiopia’s ability to support refugee populations. According to UNCHR the number of Eritrean refugees’ coming into Ethiopia has shown a steady increase over the last several years – from an average of as low as 250 to 300 a month in 2009 to an average of 2,000 a month in 2014.
Around 241,000 Somali refugees – many now third generation– are living in Ethiopia. UNHCR called for global responsibility sharing with the region, where communities have been hosting and sharing limited resources with Somali refugees for years. However, “We need to recognize that the region faces new challenges, such as the current drought and food insecurity, gripping the region, threatening starvation and death.” Nonetheless, IGAD is committed to unprecedented regional effort that commits to providing collective protection and assistance to Somali refugees.
However Ethiopia shows determination to accept refugees even at a time when rich countries are unwilling to contribute enough to alleviate the refugee crisis. Rich countries in the West are showing horrendous reluctance to accept refugees that are fleeing for their lives from the war-torn countries that are being burning with the flames of weapons of proxy wars the West involved.
Being one of the oldest refugee hosting nations in the world, Ethiopia at present the country is hosting over 850,000 refugees. When conferred with the UNHCR Commissioner, Filippo Grandi, PM Hailemariam pointed out that Ethiopia has been playing great role in hosting refugees for long period. They have also discussed the refugee situation in Ethiopia and in the region.
Filippo Grandi has declared that he is very pleased and honored to have the opportunity to discuss the matter with PM Hailemariam. Commissioner has commended Ethiopia’s effort and stated that he came to Ethiopia to recognize its generosity in hosting hundreds of thousands of refugees. He also praised the country and its government for promoting very forward looking policies to host refugees.
PM Hailemariam has underscored the need to continue to support the people fleeing conflicts and persecutions while at the same time intensifying efforts to find peace in the countries concerned. On the other hand, the Commissioner has appreciated Ethiopia’s effort saying: “I wish to take this opportunity to thank once more Ethiopia for its exceptional support to refugees and its strong partnership with UNHCR.”
Last year, 29 January 2016, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees Mr. Grandi was in Addis Ababa to attend the 26th Africa Union Summit. Then, he had time to visit the refugee camps in Shire in northern Ethiopia. On his first field trip in Africa in his capacity as UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Mr. Grandi, had the chance to see firsthand the living conditions of Eritrean refugees and had spoken with them on how the services can be improved and the possible solutions to end one of African’s most protracted refugee situations.
Then the four camps around Shire host some 38,000 Eritrean refugees, the majority of them below 25 years in age. Many refugees have left the camps over the last years, some to settle elsewhere in Ethiopia but others have moved on to North Africa and Europe. Apart from the provisions of most basic services some Eritrean refugees got the opportunity to continue their tertiary education that could help them to build a future for themselves.
“Ethiopia is a vital country of asylum, offering the prospect of freedom and security,” said the British think tank, but it added: “Refugees are not allowed to work in Ethiopia, making it hard to build a future in the country.” Hence, the British think tank said, “most Eritrean refugees living in Ethiopian camps wanted to escape to a third country in the hope of winning work, security and a settled life.”
At present about 5,000 refugees flee Eritrea each month to escape poverty, political persecution and the prospect of potentially indefinite military conscription. Thanks to its open-door asylum policy, some 170,000 Eritreans are currently living in Ethiopia -home to nearly a million refugees – the first largest refugee population in Africa.
In fact, the international community has acknowledged and appreciated Ethiopia’s contribution for dignified treatment of refugees that helped to stabilize the world’s refugee crisis. Nonetheless, the distress over refugees landing in Europe has overshadowed the efforts of African countries that are grappling with refugee emergencies.
According to the United Nations, developing countries, mostly in Africa, are taking in a disproportionate number of refugees — currently 80% of the world’s refugee population. Refugees hosted in developing countries put enormous pressure on water and health care systems in host communities. Thus Ethiopia is providing protection to refugees in spite of its own socio-economic, national security and environmental challenges.
Severe drought conditions across the region have led to food crises in Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia and Yemen. Countries are facing the worst drought in 60 years. UNHCR is urging the need for an immediate scale-up of the response to the drought to mitigate and avert famine to reduce its adverse humanitarian impact, including with regard to displacement.
According to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the world is currently facing the highest levels of displacement ever in history, with an unprecedented 65.3 million people forced from their homes by war, internal conflicts, drought or poor economies. Among these are 21.3 million refugees, over half of whom are under the age of 18; the rest are economic migrants and internally displaced persons.