Thursday, October 20, 2005

Gulf States Treat Ethiopian Workers as Slaves

Reuters.com -- Ethiopian women and girls who travel to the Middle East in search of work are often treated like slaves and abused sexually, the International Organization for Migration (IMO) said.

"Ethiopian women and girls who migrate to Lebanon, Egypt, Yemen and Saudi Arabia suffer from maltreatment, physical, sexual and emotional abuses," the IMO said in a report based on interviews with 443 women returning from the region.

Some 130,000 Ethiopian women and children have migrated to the Gulf States and other parts of the region looking for work, the organization said the report, which was issued on Wednesday.

"Extreme cases of physical trauma, death and suicide had also been reported as consequences of physical, emotional and sexual abuses of young girls and women who migrated to the Gulf states," the IOM said.

The study urged the Ethiopian government to create more jobs locally or give legal and diplomatic protection to Ethiopian migrant workers, who are estimated to be remitting around $78 million a year to families at home.

The United Nations Childrens Fund (UNICEF) said in a separate report that Ethiopia had an estimated 4.6 million orphans, more than one quarter of them orphaned by HIV/AIDS.

Twenty percent of the orphans are engaged in child labor, mainly as domestic workers, for more than 40 hours a week and 6.1 percent of them are forced to beg, the UNICEF report said.

A survey conducted in 1996 estimated that there were some 150,000 street children in the country, and that the number was increasing by as many as 5,000 every year, UNICEF said.

It said 6,000 street girls between the ages of 13 and 16 were engaged in commercial sex.

Ethiopia has a population of 72 million and is one of the world's poorest countries.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hello

"Inastelin"

"Denanish"

I am a us citizen residing in Dubai. I have met alot of Ethipian girls, christian and muslim. I really feel bad when I here there stories about being lured to Dubai only to be used as slaves and forced into prostitution. Ethiopian ladies are genuine sweet hearts and are taking adventage of. I recently met a girl who was working as a maid (slave) I told her sponsor I would give him 2000AED for her pass port. He declined so i told I would kill him if he didnt give it to me. Eventually he aggreed when I showed him my old US Army ID. If anyone cares about the poor girls here is my email adress bleausky@yahoo.com

Anonymous said...

Hi,

Does anyone know organisations/ institutions in Dubai that help newcomers (ethiopians) getting settled and staying far away from these practices?

It is to recommend to a friend who is travelling there,

Thanks in advance,
Maartje

Anonymous said...

peace be upon you every1;

I am very sad to see many poor perople forced into sex like this. i personally hate this cuz my religion is so beautiful and this place happens to be called an islamic country following islamic laws. I cant do much but just can pray for these people here. if some1 can tell me what can i do possibly for these people then i would be grateful to them.
bye

Anonymous said...

WHY ETHIOPIAN LADIES FOCUSED ON PROSTITUTION?WHAT IS THEIR BACKGROUND AT HOME COUNTRY?WHAT IS THEIR TARGET AFTER ALL?

THERE IS A COMPLICATED REASON FOR EACH POINT.

WHAT IS THE STAND OF ETHIOPIAN COUNSLATE IN DUBAI? OR OTHER NATION
WHAT IS THERE ROLE?
ARE THIS WOMEN EDUCATED?
MAY BE THEY CAN SPEAK ENGLISH
WHAT ABOUT WRITING AND READING?
WHAT IS THEIR ACADAMIC B/G?
WHY 90 PERCENT ARE ILLETERATE?

Anonymous said...

Date: 05/06/2009

Peace be with every one,

Its offensive to see our sisters how they are being assaulted and sexually abused, I have been in one of Abesha Coffee Corner in Qatar a few days back which is owned by one of Sudan’s man, a young beautiful Ethiopian girl has come to me with her things to make a cultural coffee as usual and start narrating her experiences,

Is been six month back since she migrates from Eth to work and live and makes her parents dream come true, before she arrives to Qatar she had been informed that she would be working under one organization and her salary would be 700 QR(overtime would be paid as required) including free accommodation and transportation, where as the reverse had happened to her, she works in too many places where her agency is ordering her, she works but get no money, she is having forced sexual intercourse with the man, she said she desperately miss her country where she can breath open air, she said that she felt more like a prisoner who needs to be free,

Guys this women has no where to go, there is no Ethiopian embassy in the country as you know there Is nothing in Qatar relating to Ethiopia, so its easy to predict what her future would be, in my opinion our government has to take a measure action on this topic to maintain and obtain some solutions for our sisters which enables them to work and live in there own country or to get any grantee which can secured them at any cost.

Regards,

One of ur brother.