- Over 10,000 Ethiopian citizens who were restricted from leaving the country since 1993 can now travel freely
borkena
Toronto – Ethiopia’s Immigration and Citizenship Service on Friday held a press conference with journalists in the capital Addis Ababa to highlight performance during the budget year.
Selamawit Dawit, the Director, revealed a major change that has been undertaken this year. According to the VOA Amharic report, restrictions on over 10,000 Ethiopian Citizens not to leave the country – it was in place since 1993 – was lifted this year. The Director said the restriction on grounds of concern for national security and National Interest.
The office is also reporting a major breakthrough in terms of issuing passports. Over 1.1 million passports were issued this year. It is indicated that there had been over 350,000 pending applications.
Gossa Demissie, the Deputy Director, is quoted as saying that it is now possible to obtain a passport within two months. However, he admitted that problems are not fully addressed.
Another key revelation from the presser is that the government took measures on 18,000 immigrants who were living in the country without valid documents. Some were reportedly using fraudulent documents. Others relied on expired documents. Of these about 6,000 were reportedly deported to their country of origin. However, the office did not specify their countries of origin.
Hundreds of thousands of immigrants from the neighboring countries, including Eritrea live in the country. There were recent reports that immigrants from Eritrea were unfairly targeted after relations between Abiy Ahmed’s government and Asmara deteriorated for unstated reasons.
Reported Grand Corruption Immigration and Citizenship Service
Despite claims of better performance, there have been allegations of grand corruption in the agency. When the Federal Auditor , Meseret Damtie, presented audit findings to the Ethiopian Parliament last month, one of the issues she highlighted was what appears to be a grand corruption in the agency.
Without authorization from relevant federal government authority, the immigration office was levying penalty fees on clients for not showing up on the day of appointment in connection with obtaining a passport. Worse, the collected money was deposited in a personal account of the officers. Over 16 million birr was reported collected that way. It is unknown if those officers responsible for it are held accountable or not.
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Most of the deportees are said to be thieves sent by the goon in Beijing to loot precious metals and coffee. It is reported that majority of foreigner felons in prison are Chinese accused of various crimes of theft and forgeries. I guess that is what ‘Workers of the World Unite’ means when put into action. Boy, do I have utter contempt for commies or what!!!!