The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has issued an 18-month designation for Ethiopia’s Temporary Protected Status (TPS).
DHS has stipulated only individuals already residing in the United States as of Oct. 20, 2022, would be TPS eligible.
“The United States recognizes the ongoing armed conflict and the extraordinary and temporary conditions engulfing Ethiopia, and DHS is committed to providing temporary protection to those in need,” Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro N. Mayorkas said. “Ethiopian nationals currently residing in the U.S. who cannot safely return due to conflict-related violence and a humanitarian crisis involving severe food shortages, flooding, drought, and displacement, will be able to remain and work in the United States until conditions in their home country improve.”
A country receives a TPS designation when conditions fall into one or more of the three statutory bases per DHS – ongoing armed conflict, environmental disaster, or extraordinary and temporary conditions.
The designation is based on ongoing armed conflict and extraordinary and temporary conditions in Ethiopia preventing Ethiopian nationals and those of no nationality who last habitually resided in Ethiopia from returning to Ethiopia safely, authorities indicated, adding due to the armed conflict, civilians are at risk of conflict-related violence that includes attacks, killings, rape, and other forms of gender-based violence; ethnicity-based detentions; and human rights violations and abuses.
According to DHS, Ethiopia’s 18-month TPS designation will go into effect on the publication date of the forthcoming Federal Register notice.