This study focuses on the protection experiences of Ethiopian nationals, travelling east out of Ethiopia via irregular overland journeys towards Saudi Arabia for labour employment. This so-called Eastern Route has been the major mixed migration route for Ethiopian irregular labour emigration for well over a decade. A limited number of Ethiopians also apply for asylum with UNHCR in Yemen but the vast majority travel on north to the Yemen/Saudi border.

The research objectives were:

1. to identify the scale and geography of disappearances of Ethiopian refugees and migrants who embark on the risky journey from Ethiopia to Saudi Arabia, and
2. to carefully generate an understanding of the experiences of those who disappear while they are in captivity, and
3. to assess the impact of disappearances on affected refugees’ and migrants’ families and communities.

Two recent reports related to the themes of this study are the 2021 IOM report on the families of missing migrants, and the 2022 Save the Children report on child exploitation and trafficking. 5 Both focus on Ethiopian migrants, but those using the Central Mediterranean Route. This report focuses on the Eastern Route and despite many similarities with findings from the above reports, argues that a strong case for exceptionalism can be made for this route.

Simply put, the Eastern Route out of Ethiopia is unique in its precarity for many, if not most, who travel it and in its entrenched human trafficking dynamics. The brutal methods established by smugglers to facilitate the irregular movement of refugees and migrants along the Eastern Route from Ethiopia to the Arabian Peninsula can be described as a criminal industry predicated on the commodification of human beings, and not infrequently leading to disappearances and death.