The State, Brokers and Migration in Ethiopia: Can Criminalisation of Brokers Mitigate Irregular Migration?

This Policy Brief outlines how the Ethiopian government approaches irregular migration from the country in a context of growing international pressure to control such migration. Challenging socioeconomic and political conditions in the country, combined with extremely limited options for legal international migration, compel young men and women to undertake long and dangerous overland journeys across deserts and seas to reach destinations in Europe, the Middle East and southern Africa. Brokers play an indispensable role in facilitating such mobility. The Ethiopian government has adopted a proclamation which criminalises smugglers and human traffickers, and has simultaneously intensified the detention of migration brokers. However, so far, these measures have neither stopped brokerage nor effectively addressed the challenge of irregular migration. Smugglers have circumvented new controls by turning smuggling into a community enterprise, by involving unemployed young people, cross-border traders, farmers, pastoralists and law enforcement bodies.