Nearly 150 Ethiopian migrants who had been detained in Zambia have returned home. They had been detained in Zambia for between one and five years and were serving various immigration-related sentences in prisons across the country. IOM Director General William Lacy Swing discussed the plight of detained migrants when he visited Zambia and met with senior government officials in May 2016. Zambia has strict immigration laws and undocumented migrants can be prosecuted for consenting to be smuggled and given minimum prison sentences of 15 years. Most migrants detained in Zambia come from the Horn of Africa and transit through the country en route to South Africa, where they hope to find employment and a better future for themselves and their families.

Source: Ethiopian News January 28, 2017 20:22 UTC