Faced with hardships at home, Ethiopians risk dangerous seas for a better life elsewhere
When Solomon Gebremichael heard about Sunday's disaster, it brought back heartbreaking memories — he had lost a close friend and a brother to illegal migration years ago.
'I understand the pain all too well,' Gebremichael told The Associated Press at his home in Ethiopia's capital, Addis Ababa.
Although Ethiopia has been relatively stable since the war in the country's Tigray region ended in 2022, youth unemployment is currently at over 20%, leading many to risk dangerous waters trying to reach the wealthy Gulf Arab countries, seeking a better life elsewhere.
Mesel Kindeya made the crossing in 2016 via the same sea route as the boat that capsized on Sunday, traveling without papers on harrowing journeys arranged by smugglers from Ethiopia to Saudi Arabia.
'We could barely breathe,' she remembers of her own sea crossing. 'Speaking up could get us thrown overboard by smugglers. I deeply regret risking my life, thinking it would improve my situation.'
Kindeya made it to Saudi Arabia and worked as a maid for six months, before she was captured by authorities, and imprisoned for eight months. By the time she was deported back to Ethiopia, she had barely managed to earn back the initial cost of her journey.
'Despite the hardships of life, illegal immigration is just not a solution,' she says.
Over the past years, hundreds of migrants have died in shipwrecks off Yemen, the Arab world's most impoverished country that has been engulfed in a civil war since September 2014.
'This shows the desperation of the situation in Ethiopia for many people,' according to Teklemichael Ab Sahlemariam, a human rights lawyer practicing in Addis Ababa.
'They are pushed to head to a war-torn nation like Yemen and onward to Saudi Arabia or Europe,' he told the AP. 'I know of many who have perished.'
And many of those who get caught and are sent back to Ethiopia try and make the crossing again.
'People keep going back, even when they are deported, facing financial extortion and subjected to sexual exploitation,' the lawyer said.
Ethiopia's foreign ministry in a statement on Monday urged Ethiopians 'to use legal avenues in securing opportunities.'
'We warn citizens not to take the illegal route in finding such opportunities and avoid the services of traffickers at all cost,' the statement said.
African Union spokesperson Nuur Mohamud Sheek called for urgent collective action in a post on social media 'to tackle the root causes of irregular migration and the upholding of migrant rights and to prevent further loss of life.'
Yemen is a major route for migrants from East Africa and the Horn of Africa countries.
About 60,000 migrants arrived in Yemen last year, down from 97,200 in 2023 — a drop that has been attributed to greater patrolling of the waters, according to a March report by the U.N.'s migration agency, the International Organization for Migration.
In March, at least two migrants died and 186 others were missing after four boats capsized off Yemen and Djibouti, according to the IOM.
Birhane and Gitachew write for the Associated Press.
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American Press
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Trump placing Washington police under federal control, deploying National Guard
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Bowser cannot activate the National Guard herself, but she can submit a request to the Pentagon. 'I just think that's not the most efficient use of our Guard,' she said Sunday on MSNBC's 'The Weekend,' acknowledging it is 'the president's call about how to deploy the Guard.' Bowser was making her first public comments since Trump started posting about crime in Washington last week. She noted that violent crime in Washington has decreased since a rise in 2023. Trump's weekend posts depicted the district as 'one of the most dangerous cities anywhere in the World.' For Bowser, 'Any comparison to a war-torn country is hyperbolic and false.' Police statistics show homicides, robberies and burglaries are down this year when compared with this time in 2024. Overall, violent crime is down 26% compared with this time a year ago. Trump offered no details in Truth Social posts over the weekend about possible new actions to address crime levels he argues are dangerous for citizens, tourists and workers alike. The White House declined to offer additional details about Monday's announcement. The police department and the mayor's office did not respond to questions about what Trump might do next. The president criticized the district as full of 'tents, squalor, filth, and Crime,' and he seems to have been set off by the attack on Edward Coristine, among the most visible figures of the bureaucracy-cutting effort known as DOGE. Police arrested two 15-year-olds in the attempted carjacking and said they were looking for others. 'This has to be the best run place in the country, not the worst run place in the country,' Trump said Wednesday. He called Bowser 'a good person who has tried, but she has been given many chances.' Trump has repeatedly suggested that the rule of Washington could be returned to federal authorities. Doing so would require a repeal of the Home Rule Act of 1973 in Congress, a step Trump said lawyers are examining. It could face steep pushback. Bowser acknowledged that the law allows the president to take more control over the city's police, but only if certain conditions are met. 'None of those conditions exist in our city right now,' she said. 'We are not experiencing a spike in crime. In fact, we're watching our crime numbers go down.' Klepper writes for the Associated Press. AP writers Ashraf Khalil, Alanna Durkin Richer and Michelle L. Price contributed to this report.
