(AFP Photo/Jenny Vaughan)
ESAT News (July 28, 2017)
The Ethiopian Ministry of Foreign Affairs says the country will issue ID cards to Ras Tafarians who have been living in the country for decades without any status or residence permit and to Ethiopian Jews who have been taken to Israel in a number of operations by the Israeli government since Operation Moses in 1984.
The new ID cards means Ras Tafarians who have come to the country from Jamaica and have lived in the country for over half century as well as the Ethiopian Jews, also called Bete Israelis, will enter or leave the country without exit visas. They also do not need residence permits to stay in the country, according to the Ministry.
Foreign nationals whom the Foreign Ministry said have lived in the country and made great contributions to the country will also be issued the ID.
An estimated 150,000 Ethiopian Jews were taken to Israel in Operation Moses in 1984, Operation Solomon in 1991, and several other evacuations of the Bete Israelis.
There are also about a thousand Ras Tafarians and their descendants who have lived in Ethiopia since the 60s after Emperor Haile Selassie granted land in Shashemene in 1948 to Ras Tafarians and people from the Caribbean who wish to settle in Ethiopia; as a thank you for their help in fighting Italian invaders a decade early.