Over 450 Ethiopians Return from Saudi Arabia as Govt Pushes ahead with its Repatriation Effort

ADDIS ABABA – At least 455 Ethiopians have returned home from Saudi Arabia on Friday as the government continues to repatriate citizens held inside the detention Center of the gulf nation.

Today’s returnees involves 326 women and 129 children, said the spokesperson office of Ethiopia’s Foreign ministry in a statement issued after their arrival on Friday afternoon.

“As part of the ongoing effort to bring Ethiopians living in a difficult situation in Saudi Arabia home,” the office said a total of 455 nationals have come back home today from Saudi Arabia’s capital city of Riyadh.

A senior official from the Ministry received the returnees upon their arrival at the Addis Ababa Bole International Airport.

Since the resumption of the repatriation effort late last week, a total of 1,749, mostly women and children, have been airlifted from Saudi Arabia.

The ongoing repatriation effort aims at bringing back people “who were not able to come to Ethiopia in the previously arranged mass flights,” according to the ministry.

Ethiopia repatriated nearly 42, 000 of its undocumented citizens who were detained in Saudi Arabia via 139 flights, between mid-June to the first week of July, 2021.