Ethiopia Allows Almost 1 Million Refugees to Leave Camps and grant right to Work

Ethiopia passed a law Thursday giving almost 1 million refugees the right to work and live outside of camps, in a move praised for providing them with more dignity and reducing reliance on foreign aid.

Home to Africa’s second largest refugee population after Uganda, Ethiopia hosts more than 900,000 people who have fled conflict, drought and persecution in neighboring countries such as South Sudan, Sudan, Somalia and Eritrea.

The refugees — many of whom sought refuge decades ago and have children born in Ethiopia — are largely confined to one of about 20 camps across country. Most were not permitted to work.

European Migration Network Study on Approaches to unaccompanied minors following status determination examines Right to work

The author of this blog (also a legal guardian of unaccompanied minors) advocates for any measure that can facilitate access of unaccompanied minors to the labour market, without prior work permit and irrespective of legal status. All unaccompanied minors should have access to "student job/ student contract" after school or during holidays providing they are identified as unaccompanied minors and go to school and vocational education or have full access to the legal market beyond school age, while being protected with specific work contract for minors. We also strongly believe that alternative educational vocational programmes where UAM can spend the most of their time learning vocational skills should be promoted. Those programmes are highly efficient and relevant for some unaccompanied minors who would remained out of school or demotivated otherwise.  We believe that UAM who attend educational trainings in sectors exposed to labor shortage should be also taken into consideration for residence permit whenever possible. 

The European Migration Network (EMN) recently released a study which explores the situation of unaccompanied minors (UAMs) who have been granted a residence permit in the EU plus Norway (EMN Study on Approaches to Unaccompanied Minors Following StatusDetermination in the EU plus Norway).The findings of this study are the following:

Support to employment to unaccompanied minors in the EU+