Download New Ethiopian Law on Human Trafficking and Migrant Smuggling

(For 1st issue of UNODC ROEA Newsletter)
New Ethiopian Law on Human Trafficking and Migrant Smuggling
Human trafficking and migrant smuggling are among the world’s most shameful crimes,
affecting every region in the world, including Eastern African countries. Most concretely in
Ethiopia, the need to bolster the country’s law to fight this scourge has long been seen as
compelling and urgent.
That is why Ethiopia’s recent passing of a comprehensive legislation against the two crimes was
welcomed as good news.
UNODC joined forces with the Government to make that happened: It provided technical
advice to the inter-ministry team responsible for drawing up the new text, while ensuring that
this fully incorporated the international Protocols on Trafficking in Persons and Smuggling of
Migrants supplementing the UN Convention against Transnational Organized Crime into
national law.
In the words of UNODC’s Maria Temesvari, the legislation is: “An important step forward in the
combat against trafficking and smuggling. This new law stiffens the penalties, and emphasizes
prevention and cross-border cooperation to make this combat more effective.”
The text also means a breakthrough in victim protection: “It lays the foundations for better
protection to trafficking victims and vulnerable migrants. For example, it has provisions that
foresee assistance to them as well as the creation of a Victim Fund.”
More than 90,000 migrants mainly from Ethiopia and Somalia were smuggled into Yemen in
2014. Ethiopia is in fact a country of origin and transit to three migration routes in Africa –
Northern, Southern and Eastern.
Tempted by job prospects abroad, many migrants use smugglers for a trip where too many end
up falling prey to trafficking. They face unimaginable hardships – from abductions, attacks,
hunger and dehydration on route, to physical, sexual and psychological abused, restriction of
movements and denial of salaries at destination.
In this sense, the new legislation is expected to rise Ethiopia's capacity to fight traffickers and
smugglers and dismantle organized crime groups in the region.
UNODC, meanwhile, continues to support the Government in implementing pivotal issues like
ensuring witness and victim protection, and raising awareness of the new text among criminal
justice practitioners. Up to 70 judges, prosecutors and police investigators have already been
trained on the contents of the law as well as its potential for implementation.
Consistent with the “training of trainers” model, the knowledge gained by the participants is
expected to cascade down to hundreds of their colleagues in each of Ethiopia’s regions.
The project is supported by the EU and the US State Department.
(CANNOT EXCEED 400 WORDS)
(For UNODC ROEA Website)
Fostering Awareness of New Ethiopian Law on Human Trafficking and
Migrant Smuggling
After joining hands with the Government to come up with a new legislation against trafficking
in persons and migrant smuggling, UNODC has set in motion pivotal activities to raise
awareness and strengthen knowledge of the text among Ethiopian legal practitioners.
Some 70 prosecutors, judges and police investigators from various regions of Ethiopia were
trained from 7 to 16 September on the contents of the new law as well as its potential for
implementation.
Organized with Ethiopia’s Justice Organs Professionals Training Center, the workshops included
practical exercises on how to conduct interviews to suspects and witnesses, examine crime
scenes, as well as on case and trial preparation, among others things.
One of the participants, Abdullaziz Mohammed, a public prosecutor from Harar, in eastern
Ethiopia, stressed that through the trainings, he “got to know the new law and differentiate
between trafficking and smuggling;” adding: “This knowledge will be really useful in my day-today work as I have learned the techniques to examine the cases, bring them to justice and
penalize the criminals.”
Atakilh Teka, from the Police Training Center in the northern Tigray region, painted at first a
gloomy picture of the situation: “We have seen many trafficking cases, but due to a lack of
legislation and little investigation capacity, many of them could not move forward.” Yet he was
hopeful that the new legislation and the tools learned on how to go about the investigation
process will help reverse that picture and “minimize the problem.”
Consistent with the “training of trainers” model, the knowledge gained by the participants is
expected to cascade down to hundreds of their colleagues in each of Ethiopia’s different
regions.
Eyosyas Demissie, a public prosecutor from the northern Amhara region, was ready: “My
mission is to introduce the new law and train 500 colleagues in my region, he said. To do so, he
found the training “very helpful as it covered all stages, from investigating to proving every
single element of trafficking in court so that a case do not be dismissed.”
“I will definitely be more competent to prosecute cases than I was before,” he concluded.
The project is supported by the EU. (CANNOT EXCEED 400 WORDS)
UNODC, meanwhile, has set in motion pivotal activities to spread the word on the new text
among criminal justice practitioners.
In September, it trained some 70 prosecutors, judges and police investigators on the contents
of the law as well as its potential for implementation.
Organized with Ethiopia’s Justice Organs Professionals Training Center, the workshops also
included practical exercises on how to conduct interviews to suspects and witnesses, examine
crime scenes, as well as on case and trial preparation.
Abdullaziz Mohammed, a public prosecutor from Harar, in eastern Ethiopia, stressed that
through the trainings, he “got to know the new law and differentiate between trafficking and
smuggling;” adding: “This knowledge will be really useful in my day-to-day work as I have
learned the techniques to examine the cases, bring them to justice and penalize the criminals.”
Atakilh Teka, from the Police Training Center in the northern Tigray region, painted a gloomy
picture on the situation to date: “We have seen many trafficking cases, but due to the lack of
legislation and little investigation capacity, many of them could not move forward.” Yet with
the new legislation and the tools learned on how to go about the investigation process and
appear in court, he was hopeful that this picture would be reversed and the problem
minimized.