South Africa: Police Save About 100 Ethiopian Migrants

Ninety Ethiopian migrants were being detained against their will at a Johannesburg property when South African police reported that they had freed them.

The migrants were found on the home on Sunday as police searched it for a person who had been reported missing. On suspicion of kidnapping and human trafficking, two people were placed under custody. According to authorities on Monday, the alleged kidnapping victim was also saved.

It is thought that the Ethiopian migrants were victims of unlawful trafficking. According to the authorities, they were crammed into tiny spaces and kept confined.

After receiving medical attention at a hospital, the two accused will be charged in court.

Concerns have been voiced by authorities, such as Interpol, over the trafficking of Ethiopian migrants who pass through various southern African nations on their way to South Africa. The migrants are frequently held in hazardous circumstances and trafficked.

2020 saw the discovery of at least 64 Ethiopians dead inside a freight container in Mozambique. Thirty Ethiopian migrants’ bodies were discovered in a mass grave in Malawi in 2022. The carcasses of 27 Ethiopian men were discovered discarded in Zambia in the same year.