Saudi Arabia: Ethiopian Migrant Workers, It's hell, we're treated like animals and beaten every day

In Arab countries, thousands of workers from Africa live in unworthy conditions in camps or on the streets. They have no money to travel home and their home countries do not help.

Waiting in vain for help: Ethiopian women workers who have been put on the street camp in front of their embassy in Beirut. Photo: Mohamed Azakir (Reuters)

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Hundreds of men lie on the bare floor, many with bare chests. The men look apathetic, some showing scars on their backs. These are pictures from Saudi Arabia, one of the richest countries in the world, which, according to the Daily Telegraph, were taken by Ethiopian migrants young men who came to the Gulf to work. Now they are no longer needed and are being held in various accommodations that look like detention centers.

It's hell, we are treated like animals and beaten every day, reports a young Ethiopian. Some inmates had already killed themselves, the few toilets were flooded with feces, there was hardly any drinking water. The Ethiopian consul general in Jidda, Saudi Arabia, reported that there are 53 prisons there where Ethiopians are stuck. In one alone 16,000 people.

Held like slaves and often abused

Human rights organizations called on Saudi Arabia to ensure humane conditions and to disband the camps. The Saudi embassy in London promised to clarify that the images were shocking and unacceptable. But they coincide with what guest workers have been reporting for years from many states on the Gulf, where they are kept like slaves by their employers and are often abused.

Local legislation makes migrants almost entirely dependent on their employers often not granting even minimal labor rights. If you complain in the best case scenario you will simply be thrown out. It is not possible to leave of your own free will. migrant workers must hand in their passports to their employers. Violence against employees is not uncommon. The Ethiopian newspaper Addis Standard reported that the corpses of guest workers from Arab countries regularly arrive at Addis Ababa airport.

The conditions in Saudi Arabia were meanwhile too cruel even for the Ethiopian government. In 2016, it banned its citizens from going to work in the country and last year the ban was lifted again. Probably not because conditions have fundamentally changed, but out of economic necessity. Millions of guest workers from Asia and East Africa work in the kingdom, mostly as domestic help or construction workers and despite poor pay they send money back home that is urgently needed there.

Many have become redundant in recent years, however, since Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman called on his compatriots to employ more Saudis in order to reduce unemployment. The Saudi government is now claiming that Ethiopia does not want to take back tens of thousands of its citizens, which the government in Addis Ababa rejects.

Racial Discrimination by Employers

Racism in the Gulf States is structured to perfection writes Vani Saraswathi from the Migrant Rights organization, which campaigns for the rights of guest workers among other things. In other affluent countries there are mixed neighborhoods, public transport and facilities that are used by everyone. Ultimately, segregation prevails in the Gulf States.

The social climate has deteriorated further since the outbreak of the Covid-19 crisis. African migrants report racial discrimination by their employers. So they are afraid that they are potential carriers of the virus. They forbid them to go out and meet friends. Or just throw them out entirely.

"Lebanon has turned into a big prison, far from home." -Relief Society Kafia

In the Lebanese capital Beirut, employers simply dumped their Ethiopian employees in front of the country's consulate. There was a sea of ​​mattresses in the middle of the street in the Hazmiyeh district. In between suitcases, water bottles and hundreds of women who have had nothing left. For months they camped in front of the diplomatic mission, because they only wanted one thing: back home.

Before the pandemic, they worked as housemaids; their number is estimated at almost 200,000 nationwide. Before Covid-19 hit the country, large parts of the middle class were already fighting for their existence due to an economic and currency crisis. But now many could no longer pay their housemaids, drivers, and nannies, thousands of migrant workers often stood on the street without a cent of wages and certainly without a return flight ticket, which costs several hundred dollars. Lebanon has turned into a big prison, far away from home, writes the organization Kafia, Arabic for enough, which campaigns against violence against women.

For 94 women, the nightmares are over

In the past few weeks, many migrants have sent emotional messages via social networks, asking their governments to bring them back. But mostly no help came. After the devastating explosion in Beirut of all people, the Ethiopian President and Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, Abiy Ahmed, spoke up. He first expressed his regret and then wrote: I encourage the Ethiopians living in Beirut to contact the consulate so that they can help each other in such an ordeal. To many stranded Ethiopians, this sounded like sheer mockery.

At the beginning of the week, 94 Ethiopians who lived in Beirut under difficult conditions were able to return home. The costs were paid by aid organizations and individuals. A non-profit organization thanked the donors: Your generosity has ensured that the nightmares of these women come to an end.