See US Ad Campaign on Dangers of Illegal Border Crossings for information on a US effort to educate people of the risks involved in being smuggled into the US. Also see Brazilian Soap Opera Shapes Ideas of Emigrant Life in US.
"Ethiopian Tells of Migrant Ordeal," by Mohammed Adow (in Addis Ababa) - BBC News (World Edition), 7 Sept 2005
An Ethiopian woman has gone public with her harrowing story about being trafficked to work in Bahrain, hoping this will serve as a warning to others.
"I believed the lies of a trafficker and a family friend whom I thought I could trust," says Alem Teklu, 29.
"I ended up being abused, exploited, and held against my will.
"My employer refused to pay my salary of more than six months and wanted me to forcefully marry her brother."
Alem's story has been turned into a picture story by the International Organization of Migration in order to end the silence which has surrounded the plight of trafficked Ethiopians. [Click through to the original BBC story to see a page from the pamphlet.]
Yitna Getachew, the head of IOM's counter-trafficking programme in Ethiopia, says the booklet is being distributed for free in the department of immigration, when people go to pick up their passports, as well as by various organisations around the country....
Alem said she went to Bahrain hoping to earn enough money to send back to help her family.
"But this was not to be. Three years after leaving my country, I came back poorer than when I left.
"It is sad that up to now not much information is available to young girls being trafficked and that is why I thought I should stand up and tell my fellow Ethiopians flocking with their dreams to the Middle East what lies ahead."
Alem, who is now a successful graphic designer in Addis Ababa, says she bitterly regrets the three years she wasted working as a domestic servant in Bahrain....
Added 11 Sept 2005 - on a closely related issue, see:
"UN Call to Save Somali Migrants," by Imogen Foulkes - BBC News (World Edition), 11 Sept 2005
The United Nations has called for urgent action to save the lives of asylum-seekers and migrants trying to flee Somalia on unsafe boats to Yemen.
The UN high commissioner for refugees said the world could not stand by while hundreds, even thousands, risked their lives at the hands of smugglers.
Antonio Guterres' call comes after three weeks in which at least 150 died in the Gulf of Aden....
Take a look as well at the other BBC stories on Somalia linked to from this page -- "Surviving Anarchy," "Living in Anarchy," and others -- to get an idea of the challenges that would be faced by anyone trying a) to conduct a public communication campaign in Somalia (not that it couldn't be done - but you'd have to think outside the box about how to reach people), and b) to persuade Somalis that migration is a worse option than staying put.
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