Ethiopia: Issues With Women Migrant Workers

In this episode, we take a deeper look into serious difficulties which woman migrant workers from Ethiopia continuously face. We first start by taking a look at the Tigray War, a conflict which raised tensions between the Ethiopian government and Eritrea while, most of all, increasing the ethnic cleansing of Tigrayans in Ethiopia. Refugees which have fled from Ethiopia have faced the hardships of becoming migrant workers in the almost neighboring country of Saudi Arabia. Throughout the episode, we explore more about the hardships women migrant workers have especially faced, ranging from poor living conditions to poor pay to threats of deportation.

This podcast is hosted by Monica Rivera Sosa and Natalie Vasileff. To keep up with podcast updates, please follow @theroundroompod on Instagram.

Sources for this episode:

1. https://www.hrw.org/news/2020/12/15/saudi-arabia-migrants-held-inhuman-degrading-conditions

2. https://theconversation.com/half-a-million-ethiopian-migrants-have-been-deported-from-saudi-arabia-in-5-years-what-they-go-through-195378

3. https://www.cfr.org/global-conflict-tracker/conflict/conflict-ethiopia

4. https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2023/4/17/ethiopia-recruits-500000-women-for-domestic-work-in-saudi-arabia

5. https://www.unwomen.org/en/news-stories/feature-story/2021/12/trafficked-and-returned-supporting-migrant-women-survivors-in-ethiopia-during-covid-19

6. https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2022/12/saudi-arabia-ethiopian-migrants-forcibly-returned-after-detention-in-abhorrent-conditions/

7. https://www.theafricareport.com/209683/ethiopian-detainees-report-being-mistreated-in-saudi-arabia/

8. https://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---ed_protect/---protrav/---migrant/documents/briefingnote/wcms_533537.pdf

9. https://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---africa/---ro-abidjan/---sro-addis_ababa/documents/publication/wcms_569654.pdf