For Ethiopian women, working abroad is an opportunity and a risk for refugees – Deeply
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Amidst nascent efforts to protect migrant domestic workers in the Gulf, women who have returned to Ethiopia describe why working in the Middle East involves both great dangers and opportunities and how the experience has changed their lives in a complex way. ] DEGA Tigray Region, Ethiopia – The house in Saudi Arabia was huge, with endless pieces blown with air conditioning, reminiscent of Tsega's years as a migrant domestic worker.
Now back to Dega, her village in northern Ethiopia, the mother of four aged 45 describes her earlier life in the Gulf while she was sitting under an olive tree, while the sun reached its peak in the sky
is very hot in this arid region of Tigray, which suffered greatly from the famine of 1984 and more recent droughts caused by El Niň o. There is no electricity in Dega, no flour mill and women have to walk two miles to pick up water.
The family of Tsega has no land and little means to make money. leave for Saudi Arabia. Tsega agreed, hoping that he could give his family a chance to have a better life. But once he left, he did not return money. "I did not trust him, I thought he was not interested in me anymore," she says.
In 2008, Tsega decided to travel to Saudi Arabia to look for her husband and earn his own money. to support the family. His mother agreed to take care of Tsega's youngest boy, a one-year-old boy, while his eldest daughter would take care of the rest of the brothers and sisters. "I was very sad to leave my children behind ," she says. "I just wanted to make money so we could have a better house.
So, Tsega joined hundreds of thousands of Ethiopians, both men and women, seeking to pull families out of poverty while working abroad. Women in particular have responded to the demand for domestic workers in the Middle East.
Women often face greater social pressure to migrate than men, said Meskerem Mulatu Legesse, an Ethiopian gender and development specialist. As women and girls have lower rates of education and employment, but face the same expectations to take care of their parents, become a foreign domestic worker and send their salary home is a way to help. Some girls choose to leave so they do not become the burden of their families; in other cases, parents send their daughters to the Middle East in the hope of finding a better life there.
Economic opportunities often accompany high personal costs. For years, weak labor laws in the Middle East and East Africa, unregulated and unscrupulous employment agencies and irregular migration routes have exposed women to danger and abuse.
"Many Ethiopian domestic workers in the Gulf States are not paid even though they have heavy workloads," says Mulatu Legesse. "Employers keep their pbadports very often, migrants can not leave homes, and they are not allowed to rest."
In 2013, Ethiopia announced the launch of a new pbadport. ban on domestic workers from going to the Middle East. stayed in place until earlier this year. At the time, the Ethiopian authorities reported that some 460,000 Ethiopians were legally working in the Middle East, while humanitarian groups estimated the number of undocumented workers to be more than 1945,9007. , traveled to the Gulf to find her husband after leaving for work, but did not return money. (Noel Rojo)
Tsega paid a smuggler to transport her to Saudi Arabia, crossing Djibouti, the Red Sea and Yemen, who delivered her to a woman in Saudi Arabia who arranged her first job. But before long, Tsega has run away from his employer. "I did not only need to clean or iron, but to tolerate inhumane treatment," she says. "I escaped without asking for my two-month salary."
After nine months in Saudi Arabia, Tsega found her husband. Over the next five years, she worked for two other families; Even though they treated her better, she felt some relief when she was deported in 2013, during the mbad deportation of undocumented migrants by Saudi Arabia.
Tsega explains that she would never have left Saudi Arabia alone because she was making a lot of money, but she was happy to go back to see his children. There have been several other waves of evictions since; Saudi Arabia recently announced that she had arrested 1.25 million undocumented migrants since November 2017.
During her five years in the Gulf, Tsega was able to send about 30,000 birr ( $ 1,090) to his family in Ethiopia, which they spend mainly for food. Back home, she returned to her family, like most other women in her community . Her husband had been deported to Ethiopia before her, but still did not find paid work .
She advises other Ethiopians not to go to Saudi Arabia. "I would not even pee in their direction," she said disdainfully. Y and Tsega failed to convince her to remain 18 years – years – in Ethiopia. He left for Saudi Arabia eight months ago and has not heard from him since.
Possibilities and Dangers of Migration
Despite the ban of 2013, irregular migration from Ethiopia s & # 39 is continued and according to the International Labor Organization may have increased.
Ethiopia [1965909] lifted the embargo in February after the adoption of a new law regulating employment agencies and the establishment of training centers to prepare workers for their departure, including their rights, cultural norms and basic Arabic.
In the Tigray region of Ethiopia, girls often feel responsible for taking on the financial burdens of their families on their shoulders. (Noel Rojo)
The Government has also signed or is in the process of drafting bilateral labor agreements with Kuwait, Jordan, Qatar and UAE and Saudi Arabia – the first destination for Ethiopians in the Middle East
Under the Saudi-Ethiopian agreement, Ethiopian workers must have their own bank accounts and payroll deductions are prohibited. The draft agreement with Kuwait establishes a maximum of hours [10] of work per day, establishes a minimum wage and prohibits employers from keeping workers' pbadports.
Pressures to regulate migrant labor followed a series of videos showing poignant violence against Ethiopian workers in the Middle East, including a woman dragged through the street by her hair in Lebanon and another filmed desperately fallen from a balcony in Kuwait [19659003] The Gulf countries have also reacted to some cases of violence against employers. After the murder of a 19-year-old Kuwaiti woman in 2014 by an Ethiopian housekeeper, the Gulf State banned Ethiopian domestic workers.
Kuwait lifted this ban earlier this year, fearing a shortage of domestic workers after the Philippines briefly banned women from working in Kuwait when a Filipina woman was found dead in the freezer of his employer. .
" Lack of sleep, abusive behavior, exhaustion, all of this leads to the frustration and even the aggression of domestic workers," explains Mulatu Legesse, who studied trauma at home. migrant domestic workers returning to Ethiopia. "There were cases of maids trying to commit suicide or attacking their employers, many migrants return to Ethiopia with mental problems ."
"Very few speak of badual abuse because it is painful, even their families do not know it, "says Legesse
Fiyori tries to regain a normal life by taking care of chickens and earning a living by selling eggs (Noel Rojo) [19659016] In 2014, many of Fiyori's friends traveled to Saudi Arabia from the border town between Ethiopia and Eritrea, Zela Anbesa. "My family's income was declining […] I also wanted [19659004] help my family, "says the 27-year-old girl
Her father, Mesele, helped her find a recruitment agency to take her to Saudi Arabia Arabia He said that their family was not aware of the ban on Eth iopie to travel for domestic work. " The agency seemed legal, we did not know what the risks were," says Mesele.
But when Fiyori arrived in Saudi Arabia, her employer took her pbadport and forced her to work without pay for two years. "Even when I was tired and wanted to sleep, they forced me to work." The husband's brothers were also beating me, "she said.
Fiyori lost contact with his family in Ethiopia. After a brief phone call to her father when she arrived, her employers took her phone.
Mesele tried everything to bring her daughter back to Ethiopia. He could not bear to tell his wife that he had lost contact with her, so he continued to apologize for why his wife could not talk to their daughter. For more than a year, he was constantly traveling to Addis Ababa, looking for help from the Ethiopian government offices. He told his wife that he was going to have a medical examination in a hospital in the capital.
After failing to get help from the recruiting agency and the Ethiopian police, he arrived at the Ethiopian embbady in Saudi Arabia and gave them the phone number that Fiyori had given him. The Saudi police was finally able to locate e the phone; they found Fiyori and he flew back – penniless – to Ethiopia
Fiyori now lives with his parents; she has a few chickens and plans to sell her eggs. She refers to Saudi Arabia as a prison. "I tell everyone not to go," she says
While she prepares coffee at her parents' house, her grim memories of her stay in Saudi Arabia are difficult to understand. "She's been back for two years, but she still has trauma," says Mesele.
The Difficult Path Home
The successful implementation of new laws and bilateral agreements of Ethiopia in the coming months will the key for more women back from the Gulf with savings instead of trauma . For some returnees, their lives and their families are forever changed by the experience.
Serkalem, 42, spent 11 years in Riyadh, capital city of Saudi Arabia. "My husband was not working and we had to pay the rent and the education of our children," she says. For years, Serkalem spent sleepless nights and overtime it was the thought of his family saving money for a better future.
With her small stall in a local market in Addis Ababa, Serkalem take care of her and her mother with whom she lives since her family collapsed after she left for work. (Noel Rojo)
When Serkalem returned to Ethiopia in 2013, she came back to what she describes as "a dark world".
"I lost everything My children were wrong way when I was not there, I separated from my husband and the family spent all the time. The money I earned, "she says, today Serkalem sells soa p s and vegetables to the market in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa. [19659002] "Migration is not worth it if you have a family. I have lost the love of my children, which is more than just money.
A recent study published in Globalization and Health asked Ethiopian returnees what advice they had for others. women traveling in the Gulf to be employed from home. They advised cultural awareness, polite badurance, saving their income and keeping a phone – hidden if necessary – in case of emergency.
Many women interviewed for the study said they heard about abuse before they left, but they pinpointed bad luck and instead focused on success stories. .
Tigist, 27, was in many ways one of the lucky ones. In 2012, his sister, who was already abroad, sent money to the Tigists so that she could pay a smuggler to take her to Saudi Arabia. Her employer treated her well, she was even able to save money. But a day when she went to the bank to withdraw her savings, she was stolen and injured.
Tigist's restaurant has two branches and seven employees. She wants to expand her business and employ women planning to migrate to encourage them to stay in Ethiopia. (Noel Rojo)
"My employer allowed me to fly to Ethiopia for three months to heal when they found out that my leg was broken," Tigist says. She never came back.
Now in Addis Ababa, Tigist has rebuilt his life despite the loss of his savings. She attended business development courses with an Ethiopian organization, Women in Self-Employment, and opened a restaurant which now has two branches.
"I want to have more restaurants and employ girls who are planning to migrate, so that they stay here, in Ethiopia, because working in Saudi Arabia can be difficult," she says. .
Journalist Magdalena Vaculciakova and photographer Noel Rojo are working on a multimedia project entitled Women Who Stay that covers the stories of the daily life of women who remain after the migration of their family members.
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