Yemen: Research into Knowledge, Attitude and Practices of Ethiopian migrants, with a specific focus on protection risks - Yemen
Country: Yemen
Closing date: 15 Aug 2013
Research into Knowledge, Attitude and Practices of Ethiopian migrants, with a specific focus on protection risks - Yemen
Background and Context
Over 84,000 Ethiopian migrants (a mixed flow containing both migrants and asylum seekers) are estimated to have arrived on Yemen’s shores in 2012, constituting around 80% of the total mixed migration flow from the Horn of Africa across the Red Sea and Arabian Sea to Yemen in that year. While the Somali refugee arrivals remain relatively stable at around 24,000/annum, the number of Ethiopian migrant arrivals continues to increase each year.
The main migration route from Ethiopia to the Gulf is through the port city of Obock in Djibouti. Ethiopians travel on foot, by bus and in lorries to Obock, and then embark on one of hundreds of smugglers’ boats operating across the narrow point of the Gulf of Aden, to Bab El Mandab in Yemen, on the border between Taiz and Lahj governorates. There are over 15 different known landings sites in these two governorates, and boats generally arrive overnight, under cover of darkness. Migrants are generally met by inland smuggling gangs, criminal gangs or traffickers who transport them onwards, with the vast majority travelling towards the border with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
Since 2010, reports from mixed migration and humanitarian actors in Yemen and the wider Horn of Africa and Yemen region suggest that protection risks for migrants are increasingly numerous and severe in their brutality. Migrants suffer extreme hardship, including dehydration, starvation and heat exhaustion on the journey, and are at risk of becoming stranded in various locations across Yemen. Extortion, bribery, robbery and arbitrary detention by official and de facto authorities is widespread. Journeys which begin with consensual smuggling for payment often become trafficking situations or give rise to criminal kidnapping for ransom, extortion and extreme violence in Djibouti and Yemen. Sexual violence on the smugglers’ boats and in hostage situations is rife, as well as physical violence including accounts of hot plastic being dripped onto skin, being suspended by the feet for days, limbs being broken, gunshot wounds, being thrown overboard and individuals (sometimes babies and children) being murdered to intimidate others.
Additionally, the KSA-Yemen border is now tightening significantly, with reports of a fence being constructed, increased policing and brutality by border guards. Yemeni military forces and community patrol groups are actively repelling smugglers boats on the Lahj coastline, causing landings to move north into Taiz governorate. The Government of Yemen is organizing deportation flights back to Ethiopia, and between January and May 2013 returned over 2,300 individuals. Crackdowns in Djibouti are being reported, with authorities burning boats and deporting individuals.
However, despite these added risks and the increasing difficulty of reaching Saudi Arabia, migrants continue to arrive in vast numbers.
Purpose and objective
The purpose of this research is to provide insight into current knowledge, attitudes and practices of Ethiopian migrants intending to travel or travelling to/through Yemen. The findings of the survey will be valuable information and guidance for DRC and other migration and humanitarian actors (including donors, governments and NGOs) in Yemen, Ethiopia, Djibouti (and Saudi Arabia) who seek to protect and inform migrants, discouraging increasingly dangerous forms of migration.
The objectives of the survey are therefore (i) to provide in-depth and disaggregated data on migrants’ knowledge, attitude and practice in relation to migration, its drivers and its associated protection risks in Ethiopia, Djibouti, Yemen and Saudi Arabia; and (ii) to provide a baseline set of data for targeted and informed program design, implementation, monitoring and evaluating progress in the coming years.The primary intended users are the Danish Refugee Council in Yemen and Ethiopia, the International Organization for Migration in Yemen, Ethiopia, Djibouti and Saudi Arabia, MMTF Yemen members, the Regional Mixed Migration Secretariat (RMMS), the Government of Yemen (specifically the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Interior), the Government of Ethiopia and the donor community (including SDC, DFID, BPRM, EC, ECHO and USAID).
Scope and focus
The scope of the study is to examine knowledge, practice and attitudes of potential and current migrants from Ethiopia to Yemen regarding the migration journey, its drivers and its associated protection risks.
The target groups are therefore (i) potential migrants in Ethiopia, focusing on geographical locations and ethnic groups which are known to migrate to Yemen, including men, women, boys and girls; (ii) Ethiopian migrants en route within Yemen, including men, women, boys and girls; and (iii) Ethiopian migrants for whom Yemen is the destination country and are now living in Yemen.The survey will examine the following specific issues:
• What do potential migrants know of the logistics of the journey before leaving – how long it will take, how much it will cost, where the money for the journey comes from, what route will they take, how much of this is planned before leaving?
• What do potential migrants know of the protection risks and obstacles that they will face en route within Ethiopia, Djibouti, Yemen and Saudi Arabia?
• What mitigating measures do potential migrants plan or make before or en route to guard against these protection risks?
• What are considered by the potential migrants to be acceptable risks and what unacceptable?
• For migrants en route, what were the specific drivers and triggers in the decision to leave? How does this vary between genders, locations, ethnicities?
• What role do job offers and potentially organized trafficking syndicates within Ethiopia play in the motivation to leave Ethiopia?
• Considering that the vast majority of migrants are rural, illiterate farmers, what role does changes within the agribusiness sector in Ethiopia have as a driver of migration?
• What are migrants’ end destinations and end goals in migrating? How specific are these in terms of a specific job, sector, location, family reunification, remittances? Do migrants have alternative plans if their preferred end goal is unattainable?
• What is the level of knowledge of sources of and access to support and assistance (government, humanitarian, private) en route in Ethiopia, Djibouti, Yemen and Saudi Arabia?
• What is the level of knowledge of rights and obligations in third countries?
• What are the sources of information on all of the above? Which sources are considered trustworthy and which not?
• For migrants en route, how is the actual situation they find themselves in different to what they knew before starting their journey?
• For migrants in Yemen, would they have still undertaken the journey if they had known what they know now about the protection risks and the barriers to movement? What information might have changed their mind about leaving?
Methodology and Technical Approach
The survey will include a review and analysis of existing data (including UNHCR/DRC/IOM/RMMS) on the place of origin of migrants, drivers for migration and protection risks along the journey in order to inform the target locations within Ethiopia for the study. Two pieces of field research will be conducted, one in Ethiopia with ‘potential migrants’ and one in Yemen with ‘current migrants’. The research is expected to be both quantitative and qualitative in nature.
In the expression of interest, the potential contractor should present the proposed methodology in detail, including size and structure of sampling and an example questionnaire or other format. The limitations of the chosen methodology should be clearly stated.
Findings should be disaggregated by age, gender, ethnicity, geographic area, rural/urban and other standard socio-economic characteristics. Care must be taken when presenting the data (and particularly disaggregated data) in the final report to ensure all due consideration for confidentiality and that the principle of ‘Do No Harm’ has been applied. All data sources must be appropriately referenced.
Activities and tasks
• Design the survey questionnaire with input from DRC, including pre-testing
• Conduct a desk review of available data and resources, providing a short data analysis report on the drivers of migration from Ethiopia.
• Conduct sampling and collect data from identified sample in Yemen and Ethiopia.
• Process and analyse collected data
• Submission of draft final report
• Incorporation of comments and amendments from DRC
• Submission of final report
Deliverables and timeframe
The proposed timeline for the research project is 1 September to 31 October 2013.
Deliverables:
• Desk review data analysis report (English)
• Draft survey report (English)
• Final survey report (English and Arabic)
Roles and management
The contractor will be supervised by DRC Yemen’s Mixed Migration Program Manager. Focal points from DRC Yemen and DRC Ethiopia will provide the contractor with the necessary technical and logistical support and facilitate communication with stakeholders and beneficiaries as needed in all stages of the survey implementation.
Human resource support for the survey team will include:
• DRC Yemen: two Oromo-speaking Ethiopian staff members with experience of migration issues in Yemen to support the enumeration
• DRC Ethiopia: [To be confirmed]DRC will provide consolidated feedback on the draft report within 14 days of its reception.
Commitments
DRC has a Humanitarian Accountability Framework, outlining its global accountability committments. All staff are required to contribute to the achievement of this framework
For general information about the Danish Refugee Council, please consult www.drc.dk.
How to apply:
Application process
The potential contractors are expected to submit a proposal or expression of interest based on this Scope of Work. The proposal/EOI will be evaluated by the following criteria: (1) appropriateness, relevance and effectiveness of the methodology and technical approach; (2) organizational and technical capacity of the applicant; (3) relevant and similar research experience; and (4) cost-effectiveness.
The proposal/EOI should contain:
• If an organization, profile of the organization/agency
• Structure of the research team including CVs of team member(s)
• Detailed description of methodology and technical approach – methods of data collection, size and structure of the sample for the survey, an example of the questionnaire to be used for the survey, and method of data processing and analysis
• Details of support required from DRC Yemen and DRC Ethiopia, including human resource, logistics and coordination
• Tentative work plan with timeframe and deadlines for deliverables
• Detailed budget
Please submit your application by email to drcjobs@drchoa.org, in English and marked “KAP Survey-Yemen” no later than 15 August, 2013.
