Ethiopian migrants walk for hundreds of miles to reach Saudi Arabia, hoping to escape poverty by working as laborers, housekeepers, servants, construction workers and drivers.
He whispered it every time he felt like giving up. The sun was brutal, reflecting off the thick layer of salt encrusting the barren earth around Lake Assal, 10 times saltier than the ocean.
But even if they reach their destination, their fate is uncertain; the kingdom often expels them. Over the last three years, the IOM reported 9,000 Ethiopians were deported each month. Often migrants are told they can pay when they arrive in Saudi Arabia. Those who spoke to the Associated Press said they were initially quoted prices ranging from $300 to $800 for the journey.In the best-case scenario, the smugglers are a sort of tour organizer. They arrange boats for the sea crossing, either from Djibouti or Somalia. They run houses along the way where migrants stay and provide transport from town to town in pickup trucks.
He had left behind a wife, nine sons and a daughter. His wife cares for his elderly father. The children work the farm growing vegetables, but harvests are unpredictable: “If there’s no rain, there’s nothing.” During the wait, smugglers brought out large communal pots of spaghetti and barrels of water for their clients. Young men and women washed themselves in nearby wells. Others sat in the shade of the scrawny, twisted acacia trees. Two girls braided each other’s hair.
Eissa made the crossing on another day, paying about $65 to a boat captain — the only payment to a smuggler he would make.‘It was a terrible thing’ The smugglers transported Ibrahim to the port of Bosaso on Somaliland’s northern coast. He was piled into a wooden boat with some 300 other men and women, “like canned sardines,” he said.
But for thousands of others, it’s a confusing and dangerous march down unfamiliar roads and highways. Many migrants languish for months in the slums of Basateen, a district of Aden that was once a green area of gardens but now is covered in decrepit shacks of cinder blocks, concrete, tin and tarps amid open sewers.
Finally, the smugglers gave up on getting money out of the boy and let him go. Alone and afraid at the stadium, he had no idea what he’d do next. He had hoped to reach an aunt who is living in Saudi Arabia, but lost contact with her. He had hoped one day to go back to school.After a few weeks, Yemeni security forces cleared out the stadium, throwing thousands back onto the streets. The IOM had stopped distributing food, fearing it would become a lure for migrants.
Ibrahim had just arrived a few days earlier when the AP met him, his black hair still covered in dust from the road.He made his way slowly north. Not knowing the language or the geography, he didn’t even know what town he was in when a group of armed fighters snatched him from the road. Using the AP’s phone, he called his mother for the first time since the horrific calls under torture at Laascaanood.“I know you are tired and in pain. Take care of yourself,” she told him.Migrants make their way to work in Marib, Yemen, in 2019.
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