Human Trafficking

In 2021, the government provided data from the federal level and six regions, compared with providing data from the federal level and three regions in 2020. The government reported investigating 495 potential trafficking cases—487 for sex trafficking and eight for forced labor—in 2021, compared with 172 investigations in 2020; the government did not disaggregate by type of trafficking in the previous reporting period. Of these 495 case investigations, officials investigated 127 at the federal level and 368 at the regional level, compared with 27 at the federal level and 145 at the regional level in 2020. The government reported prosecuting 387 individuals—353 for sex trafficking, five for forced labor, and 29 for unspecified exploitation—in 2021, compared with 108 prosecutions in 2020. Of the 387 individuals prosecuted, 98 occurred at the federal level, and 289 occurred at the regional level, compared with five prosecutions at the federal level and 103 at the regional level in 2020. Officials prosecuted 267 of these individuals under the anti-trafficking proclamation and 120 under the criminal code. 

Ethiopia - Migration

A considerable proportion of global migrants were involved in illegal migration, mainly in human smuggling or trafficking; illegal migration also accounted for two-thirds of all transnational migrants in Ethiopia. Human smuggling is the procurement of the illegal entry of a person into a state party of which the person is not a national or a permanent resident for financial or other material benefits. Human trafficking on the other hand is the recruitment, transportation, harboring or receipt of persons usually by force, coercion, or deception for purposes of exploitation, and can be in the form of labor trafficking, sex trafficking, and organ removal. Thus, the process of human trafficking may follow legal processes and procedures or it can involve smuggling during the movement across borders; however, the relationship between the trafficker and the victim is not sufficiently protective for the latter.