By The Ethiopia foreign ministry has informed that at least 1,300 Ethiopian nationals have been expelled from the Gulf country after the expiration of the time limit they were granted.
Saudi Arabia had earlier asked all undocumented migrants to leave from the country, including tens of thousands of Ethiopians, an order that the Ethiopians defied.
According to the sources, the Saudi government gave the undocumented migrants a period of time until March earlier, to vacate the Gulf voluntarily. The period was later extended further until June, giving room for those that were still in the country to leave, yet they still did not.
As a way forward, the Saudi government has imparted a range of fines to every migrant who failed to vacate the country during the given period, along with forced deportations.
The Ethiopia’s foreign ministry informed in a statement, that they were working hand in hand with the Saudi government to see to the safe return of their citizens.
‘The government is working with Saudi Arabia to safely return our citizens home,’ the ministry’s Director General of Diaspora Affairs, Demeke Atinafu, informed.
Stated by the Ethiopian government, more than 400,000 Ethiopians migrants are estimated to be living in Saudi Arabia, with the biggest number of them, had gone illegally, through Yemen.
Reporter: Shamilah Namuddu