Traumatic journeys of Ethiopians seeking a better life

Shamsadin Awol said if he had known what awaited him on the route to Saudi Arabia, he would never have left his home in Eastern Ethiopia. PHOTO| AFP


Starvation, torture, robbery -- young Ethiopian migrant "returnees" recount the horrors they endured on their fruitless journeys in search of a better life in the Gulf.

"I was imprisoned and beaten for money. I have a scar on my back which has lasted five months," said 23-year-old Abu Gizaw Assefaw, now back home nursing his shattered dreams of a job in oil-rich Saudi Arabia.