The International Organization for Migration (IOM) –Tanzania announced the returning to home of 71 Ethiopian immigrants. The voluntary repatriation was facilitated together with the Tanzanian Immigration Department.
The immigrants were detained in Iringa, Ubena and Morogoro prisons for entering Tanzania illegally. Some of them have stayed in the country for more than two years.
Since Early 2014, through the Voluntary Return Assistance to Migrants in Tanzania Project, IOM has voluntarily repatriated 721 stranded immigrants, many whom were Ethiopians according to media reports. Other returnees, to a lesser extent, were from the Great Lakes Region mainly Burundi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Uganda.
Every year thousands of Ethiopian illegal immigrants are reported to embark on a dangerous journey in the hope of arriving in South Africa, a country whose appeal relies on its liberal asylum policy. They pay as much as 4000 USD for smugglers that facilitate their trips. Tanzania is a transit corridor for those migrants.
In May last year 220 illegal migrants from Ethiopia were voluntarily repatriated back to their home country following a one-week verification exercise that was conducted in six prisons in Coast, Iringa, Morogoro, Kilimanjaro and Tanga regions where they had been held.
This morning, reports emerged that 63 Ethiopians were arrested in Dodoma, Tanzania.
Cover Photo: Ethiopian illegal immigrants in Tanzania
Photo: Ethiopian opinion
TPLF re-elects Debretsion as Chairman, suspends Tigray Interim Admin President, others from party membership
World Bank provides $1B grant, $500M concessional credit for Ethiopia