U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants World Refugee Survey 2005 - Ethiopia

Refoulement/Asylum  There were no reports of refoulement. The Government Eligibility Committee conducted individual refugee status determinations (RSDs) for new arrivals, granting status to all Eritreans and nearly all others. The Government did not have an agreement with Eritrea to receive rejected asylum seekers, and therefore granted status to some Eritreans who did not qualify as refugees. The Government did not have a formal RSD process for refugees from Sudan and Somalia but required the few new arrivals to register at the camps. There were no major refugee influxes during the year. At the border, local authorities identified most Eritrean arrivals, referred them to the Administration for Refugee and Returnee Affairs (ARRA) for status hearings, which then transferred them to a camp. The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) observed the status hearings.

The Refugee Proclamation, enacted in July, established the right to asylum and incorporated the provisions of the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees (1951 Convention) and the 1969 African Refugee Convention. The Refugee Proclamation prohibited the Government from refusing entry to refugees or asylum seekers or expelling or returning them to any country where they would be at risk of persecution or harm. Many Somalis applied for legal resident status rather than recognition as refugees. The Government granted most of these applications.

UNHCR closed the largest Somali refugee camp, Hartishek, as the last 719 occupants returned to Somaliland and aid agencies used the camp for IDPs. Some 2,000 Somali refugees also repatriated from Aisha camp.

Detention  The Government detained about 40 refugees on criminal charges but none for exercising their rights. By law, detentions were subject to independent judicial determinations, but the judiciary failed to review most cases. The Refugee Proclamation required the Government to issue identity cards and international travel documents to refugees. UNHCR issued registration cards to refugees in camps. Those with permission to reside outside the camps received identity cards.

Right to Earn a Livelihood  The Refugee Proclamation retained Ethiopia's reservations to the 1951 Convention provision on the right to work, placing the same restrictions on refugees as on other foreigners. The Government only granted work permits to foreigners when there was no qualified national available, and as a result almost never issued permits to refugees. The Government, however, generally did not prosecute employers for hiring foreigners without work permits. It also tolerated refugees working in the informal sector, including trading in markets or doing other piecemeal jobs. All land was state-owned, and only nationals could lease it.

Freedom of Movement and Residence  Pursuant to the Refugee Proclamation, Ethiopia mandated nearly all Eritrean, Sudanese, and Somali refugees to live in camps and required them to obtain permits to leave. About 116,000 lived in the camps at year's end. The Government granted about 600 others permission to reside in urban areas, but denied them the right to work. Police and military arrested and returned Eritrean refugees found outside of the camps but did not prosecute or deport them. Most of 70 new Somali arrivals remained in Addis Ababa illegally, with minimal harassment from authorities. In June, UNHCR moved several thousand Eritrean refugees from the border camp Wa'ala Nihibi further inland to Shimelba in response to violence on the border.

Public Relief and Education  Refugees in camps received food, water, and services. Early in the year, the World Food Programme (WFP) reduced food rations in all the camps, resulting in increased malnutrition and disease. In December, WFP again announced that it would cut rations due to lack of funding. Government-run clinics in camps provided refugees with healthcare on par with nationals. Urban refugees legally residing outside of camps also received assistance.

Ethiopia maintained a reservation to the 1951 Convention provision on refugees' right to education. Nonetheless, the Government provided free primary education to refugee children in camps and urban areas. Urban refugees could also attend secondary schools if they paid a minimal fee.

Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs)  In the Gambella region, violent conflict between ethnic Nuer and Anyuak resulted in the deaths of over 500 Anyuaks. A parliamentary commission found soldiers responsible for 13 Anyuak deaths. The Government announced in March 2005 that it would prosecute six of them. Despite periodic calm, both Nuer and Anyuak groups continued to fight, displacing tens of thousands, including about 5,000 Anyuaks who fled to Sudan.

At year's end, there were about 132,000 IDPs. In the Tigray region, about 62,000 were displaced during the Ethiopian-Eritrean conflict, and in Gambella, the recent violence displaced 51,000. In the east, IDPs lived with relatives, either in camps or ethnically similar communities.

About 15,000 people lived in the two main IDP camps in Fafen and Hartishek, where nearly half the residents did not receive water for three months. By April 2005, five percent of children under five at Hartishek were acutely malnourished and were dying at a rate of nearly 5 per 10,000 every day – more than twice the emergency mortality rate.

Copyright 2005, U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants