ADDIS ABABA, July 24 (Xinhua) -- A total of 70,000 Ethiopians have returned to Ethiopia as the Saudi Arabia amnesty deadline for undocumented migrants to voluntarily leave expires on July 24.
Ethiopian Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Meles Alem said Monday that with the extended amnesty deadline expiring on July 24, the Ethiopian government is focusing on repatriating another 60,000 Ethiopians that have registered at Ethiopian diplomatic missions in Saudi Arabia.
He also said the Ethiopian government is discussing with Saudi Arabian government to help facilitate registration of thousands of Ethiopians thought to have yet not registered with Ethiopian diplomatic missions in order to return home.
There are no exact figures on the number of Ethiopians illegally living in Saudi Arabia but some estimates put the number close to 400,000 engaged jobs ranging from maids to construction sites.
With a growing population currently at around 30 million and a squeeze in international oil price, Saudi Arabia is on a drive to indigenize its work force currently dominated by millions of illegal and legal migrants.
The approaching deadline recalled painful memories of Ethiopians in the last deportation debacle in November 2013 when a deportation round by Saudi authorities on illegal migrants left many Ethiopians in Saudi detention camps and returned home penniless.
The Ethiopian government has already dispatched a dozen diplomats in its embassy in Riyadh and consular offices in other Saudi cities to give consular advice to stranded Ethiopians.
With an eye to curb illegal migration, the Ethiopian government in May signed an agreement with the Saudi Arabia government for an overseas employment agreement to help future legal Ethiopian migrants.
It has also put advertorials in Ethiopian electronic media urging relatives of Ethiopians illegally residing in Saudi Arabia to persuade them to return ahead of the expiry of the Amnesty deadline.
