IOM: Stranded Ethiopian child migrants return home from Malawi

By Elias Meseret, DireTube Correspondent

(Addis Ababa, Ethiopia) – IOM has announced that it has facilitated the return of 50 Ethiopian irregular migrants stranded in Malawi this week alone.  Fifteen of the returnees were children.

The migrants are said to be part of a group of 387 Ethiopian migrants held in Malawian prisons for immigration offenses. They were issued travel documents in September 2015 through the collaborative efforts of the Ethiopian and Malawian authorities, with support from IOM.

Of these, 69 vulnerable individuals, including 36 unaccompanied children, were returned to Ethiopia last month, in an operation funded by the U.S. State Department’s Bureau of Population, Refugee and Migration.

IOM Malawi Head of Office, Stephane Trocher, explained the seriousness of the situation. “While we continue to work towards the return of the remaining migrants who are still in detention, we came to learn of an additional 55 Ethiopian migrants who were arrested last week. Ten of these are children,” he said.

“This brings the total number of Ethiopian migrants detained in Malawi since the middle of this year to 442 - 61 of them children. That means, one in seven of these migrants is a child. With detention conditions that can only be described as dire, we need to act urgently to prevent further harm and come up with long term solutions for managing irregular migration here,” he added.

Due to limited reception and return capacity, migrants who are stranded in Malawi often end up in overcrowded prisons, where they are locked up, often beyond their sentences, with common criminals.

The medical charity Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) earlier reported extreme overcrowding, severe cases of malaria, and pneumonia among Ethiopian migrants detained in Malawi. Almost all showed signs of malnourishment, about half were suffering from skin conditions due to vitamin deficiency, and a dozen were diagnosed with tuberculosis. One migrant had reportedly died from an unspecified illness.

DireTube News.