ADDIS ABABA – Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) announced that the government has been working hard to rescue its citizens residing abroad and has repatriated over 41,000 undocumented Ethiopian citizens from Saudi Arabia over the past weeks.
Ministry Spokesperson, Ambassador Dina Mufti said that the government planned to repatriate over 40,000 undocumented Ethiopian migrants and it did more than plan, over 41,000 citizens came back home, within the past weeks. The repatriation process was done by over 132 flights and completed beyond what was planned.
This bold move indicates the commitment and care of the government for citizens entertaining citizenship diplomacy, he stated. “Thanking the government for its generous approach to get them repatriated, returnees said that we and our friends suffered from untold misery and torture and many others were seriously hurt in prisons.”
Citizen-centered diplomacy is one of our primary focuses of Ethiopian government and it is committed to well strengthening citizenship diplomacy. The government is working hard to rehabilitate the returnees and ease the pushing factor of migration, he stated.
The undocumented migrants, who have been detained for more than a year in Saudi Arabia refugee camps, are repatriated. The repatriation was done in collaboration with delegation comprising officials from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ethiopia and other relevant government agencies from Saudi Arabia by discussing the situation well.