source: The Huff Post
published: 6 October 2014
Under the 1951 convention relating to the Status of Refugees, refugees have a number of rights including “access to national courts, the right to employment and education and a host of other social, economic and civil rights on par with nationals of the host country.”
It is surprising, then, that today many countries deny or severely restrict refugees’ right to work.
According to the United Nationals High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Ethiopia has become Africa’s largest refugee-hosting country as a result of the crisis in South Sudan; as of late July, the country has sheltered 629,718 refugees.
Despite its generosity in accepting such a large flow of refugees, Ethiopia’s economic integration policies are a questionable attempt to protect the domestic labor market at best and an outright violation of human rights at worst.