The regional government said it is offering training to adult females in all zones of the region to prepare them as migrant laborers.
The training is specifically related to activities the women are expected to undertake in Arab countries households and the first flight of the prospective Ethiopian women domestic workers is expected to commence on April 4.
The government of Ethiopia and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) have repatriated over 100,000 Ethiopian migrants from KSA, with the last group of deportees arriving last month.
APA learned that female residents of Amhara region are being recruited by authorities to work in Saudi Arabia with the promise that their foreign currency salaries will be exchanged on the “black market” back home.
The Ethiopian government has reportedly promised the prospective domestic workers that their salaries which will be sent to Ethiopian bank accounts rather than be given to them directly will be deposited in “black market” rate birr deposits.
The Ethiopian government has already reneged on the “black market” foreign currency exchange promises and has started taking the difference between the black market and official rate money into its pocket.
APA has confirmed the Ethiopian government has already made preparations to have the domestic helpers’ salaries be sent on domestic bank accounts, breaking the practice of domestic workers receiving their salaries in the countries they work in.
The Ethiopian laborers migration plan to Saudi Arabia comes despite reports of Ethiopian nationals routinely suffering physical and sexual abuses by their employers and Saudi authorities.
The Saudi government also routinely imprisons Ethiopian migrants in inhumane detention facilities and later deports the surviving destitute migrants back to Ethiopia.
MG/abj/APA