SOMALIA: Unemployment fuels youth exodus from Somaliland
IRIN
Sunday, November 20, 2011
A high unemployment rate in the self-declared independent Republic of
Somaliland, especially among school-leavers and university graduates,
has fuelled an increase in migration, with hundreds of young people
embarking every month on a perilous journey to Europe through the Sahara
Desert, officials said.
"In the months of August, September and October, about 3,500 young
men and women from Somaliland went through Ethiopia, to Sudan, then to
Libya and on to cross the Mediterranean Sea on their way to western
Europe,” Abdillahi Hassan Digale, chairman of the Ubah Social Welfare
Organization, who works for the International Office for Migration
(IOM), told IRIN.
According to Somaliland's National Development programme
- which was launched in October - total employment (comprising
self-employment and paid employment) among the economically active
population is estimated at 38.5 percent for urban areas and 59.3 percent
for rural and nomadic areas. The weighted average national employment
rate is estimated at 52.6 percent.
Unemployment among the youth, which stands at 75 percent, is much
higher than the average. Unofficial estimates show that at least 65-70
percent of Somaliland's 3.5 million people are younger than 30.
A study carried out in December 2010 by the Somaliland National
Youth Organization (SONYO), with Oxfam-Novib, indicated that out of 800
people interviewed, only 25 percent were employed.
"On the issue of employment, participants were asked if they had any
type of employment, paid or unpaid; 75 percent indicated that they had
none," according to the study.
"This was, in a way, to be expected because youth between the ages
of 15-22 could still be in school or university... Only 25 percent of
the youth stated that they had some employment. Some 43.1 percent of the
employed group were engaged in business, 40.6 percent were employed in
the private sector, whereas 14.4 percent were employed in the public
sector. Of those employed, 77 percent were confident that they had job
security."
The study identified the business sector as the biggest employer of
the youth, noting, however, that the sector was not well formalized or
regulated. "The youth who worked for this sector were mostly unsatisfied with the
remunerations they received for the work they did; 69.1 percent of the
unemployed youth had been unemployed for more than three years despite
the fact that 53.2 percent of them had skills for different trades," the
study indicated. "Lack of employment opportunities prevents them from
putting their energies and creativity to good use and thereby fulfilling
their ambitions. This leaves them with a sense of frustration and
hopelessness that drives some of them to take desperate measures.
"Each year, hundreds decide to try their luck against all odds, by
getting to the shores of Europe, crossing continents, deserts and
dangerous seas. Most of them do not make it and many perish on the way.”
Idleness
According to the study, lack of sports and recreational facilities,
venues for cultural activities as well as opportunities for internships
and doing voluntary work increase the youth's desperation and feeling of
alienation.
During election campaigns in 2010, many young people supported the
now ruling party KULMIYE (Solidarity), because one of its campaign
platforms was job creation for the youth and free primary education.
In his acceptance speech after the 20 June 2010 elections, President
Ahmed Mohamed Mohamoud Silanyo said: “The winners are our young
generation who will never undertake illegal immigration and will never
die in the Mediterranean Sea in search of a better life and employment."
In a statement on 25 October, Labour and Social Affairs Minister
Ilhan Mohamed Jama said the government had taken certain measures to
ensure the youth had better access to work,
in particular, issuing a directive to employers to give priority to
citizens. He said there were many foreigners working in Somaliland yet
they did not have work permits.
The ministry has since set up a team to monitor illegal workers in Somaliland.
“We have now nominated a monitoring team to register the foreign
workers in Somaliland and to assess their status, because our mandate is
to give job opportunities to our citizens," said Abdil-Kadir Da'ud,
director of the ministry's Labour Department. “Only 40 foreign workers
are registered with our ministry but the exact number will be known upon
completion of our monitoring.
"We have also urged international aid agencies to advertise job
vacancies in Somaliland locally and we have notified them that we will
not accept [the] hiring of foreign workers for vacancies that
Somalilanders can do."
Locals ignored
Zainab Ali Mohamed, chair of Marwo Youth Organization, said: "About
104 international NGOs and UN agencies are now working on different
projects in Somaliland; but instead of seeking locals to help in
implementing the programmes for which they source funds from donors,
about 60 percent of their staff are foreigners. This has had a negative
impact on Somaliland youth, many of whom are left with no choice but to
leave the country in search of a better life."
However, some local NGOs say illegal migration by Somaliland youth
decreased in October, compared with August and September 2011.
Ubah’s Hassan said youth migration decreased in October due to
increased awareness-raising campaigns by IOM and its Mixed Migration
Program partners.