Saudi Arabia ‘expels Ethiopian migrants’

Saudi Arabia has expelled more than 1,300 Ethiopians “in recent days” after a deadline for undocumented migrants to leave the oil-rich kingdom voluntarily expired, Ethiopia’s foreign ministry is quoted by the associated Press news agency as saying.

Ethiopia’s government is working with Saudi Arabia to safely return its citizens home, the ministry’s director general of diaspora affairs, Demeke Atinafu, told the state-affiliated Fana Broadcasting Corporate.

More than 70 000 Ethiopians have returned home since Saudi Arabia issued a decree in March, ordering all undocumented migrants leave.

The deadline was later extended to June but the majority of migrants remained in the Gulf state where they mostly work as domestic workers and on farms, AP reports.

Campaign group Human Rights Watch (HRW) estimates that Ethiopian migrants around the world sent home more than $4bn in 2015 to boost the income of struggling relatives.