ADDIS ABABA: Ethiopia has lifted a ban on domestic workers moving overseas after passing a new law to guard against ill-treatment, a government official said Thursday.
Africa’s second-most populous country instituted the ban five years ago following reports of abuse, and complaints that employment agencies lured Ethiopians into working abroad in illegal and appalling conditions.
Abebe Haile, a director at the labor ministry, said the new law regulates employment agencies that connect jobless Ethiopians with work in foreign countries.
The government has also opened training centers for low-skilled workers heading abroad.
“Taking these preparations into account, this ban has been lifted, so we’re now ready to start the overseas employment services,” Abebe told a press conference.
Ethiopia is one of the continent’s poorest countries and, according to the International Labor Organization (ILO), a major source of migrants particularly to the Middle East, where there were around 460,000 Ethiopian workers in 2013 when the ban came into force.
At the time reports of worker abuse were rampant, including a video that emerged online showing an Ethiopian maid in Lebanon being dragged by her hair in public by her employers. She later killed herself in hospital.
While some Ethiopians work legally in the Middle East, others travel without visas despite having to cross through war-torn Yemen and risk a perilous boat trip across the Gulf of Aden.
Last week at least 30 people drowned when a boat carrying Somali and Ethiopian migrants capsized off Yemen’s coast.
Saudi Arabia — a popular destination for Ethiopian migrants — has carried out mass deportations of illegal foreign workers in the past few years.
Riyadh last year announced it would begin deporting illegal migrants again and Ethiopia’s foreign ministry told state media that more than 14,000 of its citizens have been repatriated since November.
Abebe said Ethiopia has signed bilateral agreements with Kuwait, Jordan and Qatar to govern the flow of low-skilled workers, and is working on agreements with other nations.
Ethiopia lifts ban on domestic workers moving overseas
Ethiopia lifts ban on domestic workers moving overseas
Investment licenses in Saudi Arabia have increased 20-fold in 5 years
RIYADH: The total number of investment licenses issued in Saudi Arabia rose 83.4 percent year on year in the third quarter of the current year to 6,986 licenses, excluding those issued under the campaign to correct the status of violators of the Anti-Concealment Law.
According to the Financial Analysis Unit at Al-Eqtisadiah, investment licenses have increased twentyfold over the past five years, compared with 351 licenses in the third quarter of 2020.
Since the announcement of Vision 2030 in 2016, foreign direct investment inflows have more than quadrupled. They grew by 24.2 percent last year to SR119.2 billion ($31.7 billion), marking the highest value and fastest growth rate in three years. This figure exceeds the annual target of SR109 billion by around 39 percent.
By sector, most licenses issued during the third quarter of 2025 were concentrated in construction activity, accounting for around 37 percent of total licenses, with 2,583 licenses.
This was followed by wholesale and retail trade with 1,214 licenses, representing 17 percent of the total. Manufacturing ranked third with 11 percent, bringing the combined share of the three sectors to 66 percent of total licenses.
Wholesale and retail trade recorded the highest growth rate in investment licenses, with year-on-year growth of 234 percent, followed by the construction sector, human health and social work activities, education, and accommodation and food services, each posting growth of more than 100 percent.
