When conflict erupted between Ethiopia and Eritrea in 1998, Michaele Haile was only 18. His hopes shattered by the frailty of peace in his home country, he crossed the border into Ethiopia and entered the Adi-Harush refugee camp in Tigray. There, a new home awaited him: one gentler than the battlefields of Badme, but no less unforgiving. Like many refugees, he received an identity card from the Refugees and Returnees Service (RRS), yet the right to work beyond the camp’s borders remained out of reach. For three years, he took on modestly paid roles within the camp, from foreman to project officer for a humanitarian agency, earning 700 Ethiopian Birr (ETB), equivalent to $13.
More than a decade later, Muetaz Mhd Semir faced similar barriers. Forced to flee his hometown when war swept through Syria in 2011, he eventually found refuge in Ethiopia. Before the war, he had honed his culinary skills working alongside his grandfather in their family’s shawarma shop. After a year in Addis Ababa, he opened a small restaurant: Amerogn Chicken. Yet, like many refugees, legal barriers forced him to partner with an Ethiopian citizen to secure a business license.
In 2015, Ebtesam Khalid Mohammed sought refuge in Ethiopia to flee Yemen’s civil war. A single mother of three, she was determined to build a future for her family and tried repeatedly to start small businesses, from a coffee shop to a restaurant. However, under Ethiopia’s restrictive legal framework, she was barred from engaging in commerce. Each attempt ended in disappointment as authorities routinely confiscated her goods.
For years, Michaele, Muetaz, and Ebtesam, like thousands of refugees in Ethiopia, faced steep legal barriers that kept them from achieving self-reliance. Whether in a camp in Tigray, a busy restaurant kitchen, or a small shop in Addis Ababa, they struggled to build stable lives in an environment that often left them without a way forward.
A shift sparked in 2016 when Ethiopia’s then-Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn announced nine landmark pledges at the 71st UN General Assembly. Four of them focused on improving refugee work rights and livelihoods. In response, the World Bank launched the Ethiopia Economic Opportunities Program (EOP) in 2018, as part of a global commitment to provide financial and technical assistance to government institutions in host countries so they could offer better support to refugees. EOP is financed by the International Development Agency (IDA), the Foreign Commonwealth Development Office (FCDO), and the Global Trust Fund for Forced Displacement.
One of EOP’s first priorities was to support consultations among government institutions such as the Refugees and Returnees Service (RRS), the Ministry of Labor and Skills (MoLS), the Industrial Parks Development Corporation (IPDC), and the Ethiopian Investment Commission (EIC). These discussions identified the lack of a legal framework guaranteeing the right to work as a key barrier to refugees’ economic inclusion.
The breakthrough came in 2019 with the introduction of the Refugee Proclamation No. 1110/2019. For the first time, refugees and asylum seekers in Ethiopia were granted the right to engage in wage-earning employment, in self-employment, and/or to obtain business licenses. In order to rapidly implement the proclamation, RRS introduced a new right to work directive in 2020, with EOP’s facilitation. The directive provided a framework for immediate action, allowing Ethiopia to move toward integrating refugees into its labor market.
For Michaele, this change was transformative. In September 2023, after years of informal work confined to the refugee camp, he finally received his work permit. “Employers started taking me seriously as a candidate,” he says. “They stopped making excuses not to hire me.” He secured a Tax Identification Number (TIN), opened a bank account, and began receiving fair payments. “I once received ETB 40,000 when I should have been paid 100,000 because I didn’t have a TIN,” he recalls. Today, his income is stable enough that he no longer borrows from friends to make it through the month.
The new directive also opened the door for refugees to pursue entrepreneurship. Previously, refugees fell under the broad category of ‘foreign nationals,’ facing capital requirements as high as $200,000 to start a business. Thanks to EOP’s facilitation and the work of RRS, new regulations now grant refugees the same treatment as other foreign nationals, with legal rights to engage in commerce free of unrealistic capital demands.
Ebtesam was among the first to benefit from the new directive. In 2023, she secured a business license and a TIN. Today, she runs a small cafe in Addis Ababa serving coffee and fast food. “Through the support of RRS, I was able to make my business formal with a capital of only ETB 1,000,” she says.
For Muetaz, the owner of Amerogn Chicken, the policy shift offered hope after years of navigating legal limbo. His restaurant chain has grown to eight branches, employing over 700 people, but he has not been successful yet in registering the business in his name, owning property, or traveling freely. With RRS support, his case is now under review by the Ministry of Trade and Regional Integration, and he is on the path to securing formal business registration and work permits for his refugee employees. Muetaz plans to expand into new ventures, including a cheese factory that could create 2,000 jobs. “I want to pay taxes, create opportunities for others, and contribute to this economy,” he says. Beyond his business success, Muetaz has become a well-known figure in Ethiopia’s culinary scene. At the TikTok 2024 Awards, he was presented with a trophy in the Food and Cooking category.
The stories of these refugees reflect a broader shift. Since the introduction of Ethiopia’s progressive refugee law, praised by the UN as one of Africa’s most forward-looking, over 24,000 refugees have accessed economic opportunities, including more than 16,400 residence permits, 6,600 work permits, and 1,200 business licenses.
Alongside these reforms, the World Bank-supported EOP program has helped create more than 25,000 jobs for Ethiopians in industrial parks in Bole Lemi, Hawassa, Kombolcha, and Mekelle. Technical support to key institutions has strengthened capacity and translated new rights into practical realities.
At the 2019 and 2023 Global Refugee Forums, Ethiopia made further pledges to promote refugee livelihoods and economic inclusion. Programs like EOP have been key in turning these promises into progress. While the journey is far from over, the stories of Michaele, Ebtesam, and Muetaz shows how thousands of refugees are now becoming taxpayers, job creators, and valued members of Ethiopian society.