International Journal of Political Science and Development
 

International Journal of Political Science and Development

Vol. 6(3), pp. 68–73, May, 2018. 

DOI: 10.14662/ARJASR2017.040

ISSN: 2360-784X

Research Paper

An Appraisal of Ethiopia’s Out-of-Camp Policy towards Eritrean Refugees in the Perspective of Protecting Refugees: Theories and Practices

Melkamu Dires Asabu

Faculty of social science, Department of Political Science and International Relations, Woldia University, Woldia, Ethiopia. E-mail: dires.melkamu@gmail.com,  Tel: +251-922752795

Accepted 29 January 2018

Like many other countries, Ethiopia opensits borders for refugees seeking protection in the country. And to administer refugees, the country promulgated 2004 encampment policy (that enforced refuges to don’t live and move outside refugee’s camps). However since 2010, the country adopted “Out-of-Camp Policy” to the mere Eritrean refugees. Following this many Eritrean refugees are now living in Addis Ababa and other regional cities. Since this policy targeted only the Eritrean refugees, non-Eritreans can’t entitle the benefits. Accordingly, asked the question ‘is it possible oris there a legal ground to grant this right to the mere Eritrean refugees?’ to himself. Hence, this study conducted to examine what seems like the consistency of theories and practices of protecting refugees in Ethiopia based on the adopted international and regional conventions and country’s refuges policy. The method what I have employ to do so was qualitative research approach by collecting and analyzing curable secondary sources including books, journal articles, research papers and other relevant official documents. The finding revealed that the country with no having an official duty is on the way of granting and respecting the right to work and education for refugees irrespective of their nationality. These virtuous efforts shouldn’t be jumped without appreciation. Inversely, the country failed to execute its official duties. For instance, the country accepts the convention without reservation of freedom of movement and non-discriminatory treatment of refugees. The Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia (FDRE) constitution also grants freedom of movement for refugees. So, the adopted ‘out-of-camp refugees policy’ that privileged only Eritrean refugees is either directly or indirectly correlated with granting freedom of movement. This shows the presence of discrimination among refugees due to their nationality, and which has inconsistency with national, regional and international principles adopted by the country.

Key words: Encampment policy, Ethiopia, Out-of-camp policy, Eritrean refugees

Cite This Article As: Asabu MD (2018). An Appraisal of Ethiopia’s Out-of-Camp Policy towards Eritrean Refugees in the Perspective of Protecting Refugees: Theories and Practices. Int. J. Polit. Sci. Develop. 6(3) 68-73

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