The Ethiopian Embassy in Kenya has been working steadily to repatriate Ethiopians detained in Kenya after they had been brought illegally across the borders by human traffickers and smugglers.

As part of this effort, Ethiopia’s Ambassador to Kenya, Ambassador Shemsudin Roble, paid a visit last week to the Ruwira detention center where he heard the stories of victims of the traffickers from Ethiopia, details of the suffering from their smuggled entry into Kenya, and their requests to be repatriated.

They pleaded with the government to work more aggressively in controlling illegal trafficking.

The victims told the ambassador that most of them had been detained in Kenya while they were en route to South Africa.

They said they paid around 50,000 birr to the smugglers and all they had obtained for this was detention in Kenya after they had been apprehended by the Kenyan police force.

Ambassador Shemsudin said the Embassy was now working in collaboration with other international organizations to arrange repatriations of Ethiopians detained in Kenya for illegal entry.

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* Originally published on A Week in the Horn – March 1, 2013 issue, titled “Embassy in Kenya working to repatriate victims of trafficking”. Items from A Week in the Horn are re-published here with a permission to do so.

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