HARGEISA, 10 November 2011 (IRIN) – Migrants in Somaliland, especially those from Ethiopia, have increasingly come under attack since the government in the self-declared independent state in September ordered employers to fire all “illegal foreigners” as part of its commitment to expelling them from the territory, according to rights organizations.

“Many of those targeted for attack in the past one-and-a-half months live in the eight IDP [internally displaced persons] camps in Hargeisa,” said Abdillahi Hassan Digale, an official of the Ubah Social Welfare Organization, which champions the rights of minorities and IDPs. “We have recorded 23 cases of violations, mostly by security groups [young men hired by the community to provide protection services] in these camps. They ask for bribes from the migrants; if they don’t pay up, they are threatened that the police will be notified of their presence in the country.”

Digale said most of the illegal migrants targeted were employed as watchmen, domestic servants, rubbish collectors, construction workers, farm hands or latrine diggers.

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