136,000 sent home in migrant-worker crackdown

ADDIS ABABA (AP):

An Ethiopian government official says at least 136,000 Ethiopians have been sent home from Saudi Arabia as part of its crackdown on migrant workers.

Foreign Affairs Spokesman, Dina Mufti, said Tuesday that has left his government trying to cope with the massive number of returning Ethiopians.

In Saudi Arabia, an amnesty period for immigrants recently ended and a crackdown began November 4 targeting the kingdom's nine million migrant labourers.

Decades of lax immigration enforcement had allowed migrants to take low-wage jobs that the kingdom's own citizens shunned. Saudi authorities grappling with high unemployment now want those jobs for the kingdom's citizens.