Message to Senator Mark Warner on Sep 17, 2020 on Town Hall

Why Security and Justice for Tigreans in Ethiopia (SJTE) is lobbying your offices?

We are concerned about the unacceptable human rights violations in Ethiopia as a whole and the plight of Tigreans in particular, as a special target group. The current administration of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia (FDRE) has targeted Tigreans because it came to office on a wave of anti-Tigrean sentiments. It would not be an exaggeration to say Tigrigna speakers are in the crosshairs by reason of their ethnic identity alone. In fact, yesterday’s detainment of an international election observer Kjetil Tronvoll and the uprising in Oromia after the assassination of the iconic protest singer Hachalu Hundesa in June, validate the warnings that SJTE has delivered to the White House, Congress, and the State Department, regarding the increase in persecution against Tigreans.

Migrant Crisis: There are over 40 thousand Ethiopian economic migrants stranded between Saudi Arabia and Yemen. The majority are male in their 20s, women of childbearing age and so there are children born en route and/ or in difficult circumstances. The pandemic has exasperated already intolerable conditions. Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and his ruling party are aware that the majority are Tigrai-Born, and as part of his hostility to Tigreans he has publicly, in parliament commented that if he brings repatriates them, they will only be part of the political opposition. In so stating he has confirmed he is using young Ethiopians whose remittances (FDI) would have supported families back home and further worsening the economic crisis that set these migrants on this perilous journey.  In desperation, and as the last State Government in the Ethiopian Federation to still have a functioning administration, the President of the Tigrai State was forced to send a letter to the King of Saudi Arabia.

• https://www.france24.com/en/20200911-living-hell-ethiopians-detained-in-saudi-call-for-help?ref=tw
  
  
• https://www.telegraph.co.uk/global-health/climate-and-people/investigation-african-migrants-left-die-saudi-arabias-hellish/
  
  

Immigration

On Asylees and Immigration services

·         The current immigration process notwithstanding the pandemic is burdening the Ethiopian-American community negatively.

·         For a naturalized citizen to reunite with his/her family use to take 1 year is taking up to 3 years.

·         Our community is also being impacted by the Asylum Granting Process which?

·         The Resident program (Green Card) applications are similarly being delayed by up to 2 years.

 

 Virgina and the greater DMV area, the largest hub for Ethiopian-Americans, will feel the effects of these changes, impacting local government administrations severely. Social services will be overburdened because as a community we depend on a tightly knit family and social safety nets. This will encumber the system further.