Sous: Enstiti Media Endepandan
At Obock, Djibouti, 2,000 migrants gather each day along the waters of the Gulf of Aden; they look for boats to get them to Yemen. Over the past two years, more migrants from Africa have used the “Eastern Route” rather than go across the Mediterranean Sea; dapre to the UN’s migration agency—International Organization for Migration—this Eastern Route se kounye a the “busiest maritime migration path on earth.” Roughly 11,500 people got on boats at places like Obock and Bosasso, Somalia, to go into Yemen, and then overland to Saudi Arabia, where they hope to get employment.
peyi Letiopi
Outside the Horn of Africa, Ethiopia is typically thought of as a country of distress due to the 1983-85 famine that wracked the country. But over the past few years, according to World Bank nimewo, Ethiopia has been one of the fastest-growing countries in the world (after Myanmar and China). On July 18, 2019, the director of the International Monetary Fund’s African Department Abebe Aemro Selassie gave a prezantasyon at the Ethiopian Economics Association. In his presentation, Selassie said that the key reasons why Ethiopia has seen such high growth have been improvements in the productivity of labor and increased investment in capital stock (factories, infrastructure). To make these gains, Ethiopia had to borrow, which has now put it in a position of debt vulnerability.
If you just look at the numbers, Ethiopia is doing great. But, not for people in the rural districts, where agrarian distress remains a fact of life. Of those who use the Eastern Route to migrate, sou pousan 90 come from Ethiopia, and most of them from the rural districts of Amhara, Oromia, and Tigray. The World Food Program and the Ethiopian government’s done shows us that these districts face terrible food insecurity and that there is a high level of food energy deficiency per adult in rural Ethiopia, with Amhara and Tigray leading the way. There has been barely any exit from the long-term crisis of agriculture in Ethiopia, whose lands are now increasingly threatened by corporations from India and Saudi Arabia and by shifts in the climate.
Politik neyoliberal yo te pèmèt peyi Letiopi grandi byen vit, men kwasans sa a pa t anfavè moun, sètènman pa moun ki nan distri riral yo nan Amhara, Oromia ak Tigray, ki soti kote migrasyon prensipal la te fèt.
Djibouti
Djibouti, at the tip of the Horn of Africa, within sight of Yemen, is one of the smallest countries in the world. But it is located at a strategic vantage, at the entrance of the Red Sea. That is the reason why it has been home to a very large United States military base—at Camp Lemonnier. But the U.S. base is no longer the only one; there are substantial bases for the militaries of China, France, Italy, and Japan.
For years, there was concern about the rise of piracy in the water off the Horn of Africa, with pirates from Somalia being seen as a major threat to global shipping. But, over the past decade, piracy here has decreased in these waters as it has decreased worldwide. It is clear that none of these bases are in Djibouti to deter piracy, which is their stated goal. They are there because of the geopolitical tensions around the Gulf region.
Lend ak Arabi Saoudit ap bati pwòp baz yo nan Djibouti, ak Saoudit yo menm gade nan Obock pou tè. Emira Arab Ini yo (UAE), ki pouswiv lagè nan Yemèn ak Arabi Saoudit, deja gen baz militè nan Eritrea, Somaliland, ak Somali.
Malgre prezans fòs sa yo nan yon ti peyi konsa, pa gen okenn fason efikas pou anpeche migrasyon plizyè milye Etyopyen atravè Djibouti al Yemèn. Ni pò yo, ni dlo yo se baryè nan egzòd imen sa a.
Yemèn
Lagè Arabi-Emira Arab Ini sou Yemèn te pase pou senk ane. 23 fevriye, pati yo nan konfli a te rankontre nan lòt bò larivyè Jouden pou yo dakò sou yon echanj prizonye; sa a akonpli kèk nan angajman yo te pran nan Akò Stockholm nan 2018. Yon pon lè medikal te pèmèt yon ti ponyen nan pasyan grav yo dwe pran soti nan kapital Yemèn nan Sana'a, pandan y ap pò Hudaydah a lajman kite gratis pou imanitè nesesè. machandiz pou antre nan peyi a. Prèske tout moun Yemèn yo depann sou machandiz imanitè sa yo pou siviv debaz yo.
Despite this relatively good news, violence has escalated in certain key districts of Yemen over the past two weeks. Since January, 35,000 Yemenis have been displaced from their homes, an indicator of the dangerous situation in the country.
It is into this cauldron that the Ethiopian migrants come. Crossing the Red Sea is not easy, since the boats are insufficient and overcrowded; migrants who make it to Yemen rapòte that they have seen people leap off the boats to certain death because of the terrible situation that they face. In March 2017, a UAE-Saudi helicopter revoke at a boat carrying Somali migrants—killing at least 42 people; there are additional reports of this kind of activity along the Yemeni shoreline.
In Yemen, the migrants are held in detention camps, where they are abi by human traffickers and by other gangsters. Migrants in these camps, including in Aden, face extortion—if they cannot pay the guards, they are beaten, raped, and held indefinitely. When the spotlight is shone on any one of these camps, it closes and another opens elsewhere.
Arabi Saoudit
If the migrants somehow make it to Saudi Arabia, the terror ap kontinye. Smugglers take the migrants into Saudi Arabia’s Jizan Province; often the migrants are made to carry qat (a stimulant grown in Eastern Africa) across the border. They are often shot at by Saudi border guards and—if caught—are either ransomed or held in places such as Jizan Central Prison (which might as well be a detention camp).
Saudi Arabia and Ethiopia have a strangely symbiotic relationship. Saudi Arabia relies upon at least 400,000 Ethiopian workers, who come to do a variety of jobs in the kingdom. But, every few years, Saudi Arabia deports these workers. In 2013, the Saudi government removed 100,000 Ethiopian workers; they were deemed to be “illegal,” arrested, and removed in chartered flights. Then, slowly, Ethiopian workers returned, now with lower wages and almost no rights. In March 2017, Saudi Arabia depòte 260,000 Ethiopians. These deportations are a disciplinary mechanism, a way to keep the Ethiopian migrants on their toes.
Letiopi te fè akò ak Arabi Saoudit (2017) ak UAE (2018) pou asire pwoteksyon pou sitwayen yo, men gen ti prèv ki montre sa ap ede. Tou de Arabi Saoudit ak UAE yo te mete dè milya de dola nan Bank Nasyonal la nan peyi Letiopi ak nan gouvènman li yo, yon pati nan envestisman etranje dirèk (FDI) ki te chofe ekonomi an peyi Letiopi. Bay lajan sa a, li enposib imajine gouvènman an nan peyi Letiopi kanpe pou sitwayen li yo nan Gòlf la.
Bato ki soti Obock, Djibouti, ap kontinye fè komès yo; Etyopyen yo pral kontinye vwayaje wout lès la nan Arabi Saoudit. Pa gen plan ki ap mache andedan peyi Letiopi pou kapab jenere travay pou kenbe popilasyon an an plas, e sètènman pa gen okenn plan nan Arabi Saoudit pou amelyore kondisyon travayè li yo.
There is a demonstration of values here: when workers come to Saudi Arabia, they have to travel by the dangerous waters and through war-torn Yemen; when they get deported, they are flown home by aircraft.
Atik sa a te pwodwi pa Globetrotter, yon pwojè Endepandan Medya Enstiti a.
Vijay Prashad se yon istoryen Endyen, jounalis, kòmantatè ak yon entelektyèl maksis. Li se Direktè Egzekitif Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research ak Chèf Editè LeftWord Books.
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