PROTECTION
The government did not provide adequate assistance to trafficking victims, relying almost exclusively on international organizations and NGOs to provide services to victims without providing funding to these organizations.The government continued its assistance reintegrating over 170,000 Ethiopian returnees resulting from the Saudi Arabian government’s closure of its border and massive deportation of migrant workers beginning in late 2013.The anti- trafficking taskforce partnered with international organizations to produce a detailed analysis of the socio-economic status and needs of Ethiopian returnees and began the development of income generation plans to reintegrate deportees; it is unclear when these plans will be implemented. Eighty-one percent of returnees cited local government as their main source of support, including job creation and psychological care; however, many returnees also reported disappointment in their inability to obtain expected microcredit or arable land, due to the government’s low capacity and budget in this area.
The government did not report the number of victims it identified and assisted during the year. It remained without standard procedures for front-line responders to guide their identification of trafficking victims and their referral to care. Most victim assistance focused on temporary services to migrants at border crossings including food and water, medical assistance, temporary accommodation and transportation back to their home village; the government continued to jointly operate an emergency response center in the Afar Region with international organizations. One organization in Addis Ababa provided psychological and reintegration assistance to over 400 returnees from Saudi Arabia, while another NGO reported assistance to at least 85 child trafficking victims; however, these organizations did not receive government support for their efforts.Various district-level women and youth departments supported child trafficking victims by providing psycho-social support and placing them in temporary child-safe homes until their families were located. Many NGO-run facilities depended solely on project-based funding for continued operation, which resulted in unpredictable availability of care. At times, the government created additional challenges for these organizations as a result of its 2009 Charities and Societies Proclamation, which prohibits organizations receiving more than 10 percent of their funding from foreign sources from engaging in activities that promote human rights. These restrictions had a negative impact on the ability of some NGOs to adequately provide a full range of protective services, including assistance to victims in filing cases against their traffickers with authorities and conducting  family tracing.
The government operated child protection units in the 10 sub-cities of Addis Ababa and six major cities; staff were trained in assisting the needs of vulnerable children, including potential trafficking

victims.While officials reportedly encouraged victims to assist in the investigation and prosecution of their traffickers, there were no protective mechanisms in place to support their active role in these processes. Ethiopian law does not prevent the deportation of foreign victims to countries where they might face hardship or retribution.There were no reports of trafficking victims being detained, jailed, or prosecuted in 2014. Limited consular services provided to Ethiopian workers abroad continued to be a weakness in government efforts.The current Employment Exchange Services Proclamation requires licensed employment agencies to place funds in escrow to provide assistance in the event a worker’s contract is broken; however, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has never used these deposits to pay for victims’ transportation back to Ethiopia.

PREVENTION
The government demonstrated progress in its efforts to prevent human trafficking, particularly through increased organization of both regional and national awareness raising campaigns coordinated by the national taskforce. In addition to the national anti-trafficking taskforce, with officials from federal ministries and agencies, each region has its own technical working group that is scheduled to meet quarterly. In 2014, the national trafficking taskforce collaborated with international organizations to launch a community conversations trafficking awareness program, conducted in over 325 neighborhoods with the participation of 25 to 40 residents in each neighborhood session, including local and district officials. The national trafficking taskforce also conducted two monitoring trips to the four primary regions of the country where the majority of trafficking victims have originated. Nationally owned media companies supported local NGOs in airing a court-based drama series, which portrayed child labor in the agricultural sector. The government, in partnerships with NGOs, distributed 42,000 leaflets outlining causes and consequences of child labor, as well as 6,500 manuals portraying personal stories of victims of child labor. The government participated in the production and broadcast of both a documentary and weekly radio program addressing the causes and consequences of child labor and human trafficking.
Officials continued to acknowledge licensed employment agencies were involved in facilitating both legal and illegal labor migration and, as a result, continued the ban on the legal emigration of low- skilled laborers initiated in 2013.The ban is set to remain in place until draft amendments to the employment exchange proclamation are enacted to allow for greater oversight of private employment agencies, to mandate the placement of labor attachés in Ethiopian embassies, and to establish an independent agency to identify and train migrant workers.The government monitored the activities of labor recruitment agencies by conducting both scheduled and random inspections; the government suspended 10 licenses of recruitment agencies for noncompliance during the reporting period. Due to a lack of employment opportunities within the country and a cultural dependence on overseas remittances, officials acknowledged the ban on overseas migrant labor may encourage illegal migration; as a result, the EFP mobilized resources to monitor Ethiopia’s borders.The government completed bilateral labor migration agreements with Djibouti, Sudan, Jordan, Kuwait, Yemen and Qatar and is negotiating new agreements with Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, South Sudan, and the United Arab Emirates. Agreements with neighboring African countries aim to provide joint border management to include repatriation assistance for trafficking victims; however, workers’ rights are not explicitly addressed. Agreements with destination countries predominantly in the Middle East require governments to commit to ethical

recruitment, legal remedies against those who violate the law, and equal protection of Ethiopian workers, to include equal wages for equal work, reasonable working hours, and leave time.
The government continued its efforts to implement a 2012 law requiring registration of all births nationwide; however, the lack of a uniform national identification card continued to impede implementation of the law and allowed for the continued issuance of district-level identification cards subject to fraud. The government did not make any efforts to reduce the demand for commercial sex or forced labor during the reporting period.The government provided anti-trafficking training or guidance for its diplomatic personnel as an element of their basic diplomatic training. Ethiopian troops were provided with anti-trafficking training prior to their deployment abroad on international peacekeeping missions, though such training was conducted by a foreign donor.