The federal government availed a tax incentive package to overseas employment agencies expecting to stimulate remittance inflow. The authorities offer agencies signing up more than 500 employment contracts up to three years of tax exemption.

The recruitment agencies must submit proof of contracts from the Ministry of Labour & Skills before applying for the privileges with the Finance Ministry. According to Habtamu Mengesha, director of legal affairs at the Ministry of Finance, the privilege can be extended to six years in exceptional cases.

The scheme is part of a series of legal reforms introduced after the federal government proscribed labour migration to the Middle East nearly a decade ago. In 2013, legislators repealed a law that governed recruitment for overseas employment due to growing domestic violence, labour exploitation, and human rights abuses Ethiopian migrants faced abroad, particularly in the Middle East.

The federal government reinstated the travel ban four years ago after introducing a new law. The previous law required migrants to prove they had completed eighth-grade education. The rule spurred many who could not present proof of education to migrate illegally, exposing themselves to risks and abuses. The revised law allows citizens without formal education to travel so long as they receive training for two months and obtain a certificate of competence.

However, the measure has proved insufficient to address undocumented migration. Since 2017, over 400,000 Ethiopians migrated to the Middle East “illegally”, according to the International Labour Organisation (ILO) estimate.

People familiar with the issue say the absence of bilateral agreements pushing undocumented migration to the Arabian Peninsula.

Seblewengel Felegehiwot is a major shareholder and general manager of Sablina Foreign Employment Agency. Incorporated seven years ago with two million Birr in paid-up capital, her agency sends up to 200 labour migrants to Jordan each year. The minimum monthly salary for migrants who travel through the Agency reached 225 dollars, although it could also rise to 330 dollars.

“We’re ready to send workers to Qatar and Oman,” Seblewengel told Fortune. “We couldn't due to the absence of bilateral agreements.”

Seblewengel attributed the absence of a bilateral deal with Saudi Arabia to driving migrants to travel to the Gulf country “illegally”. Close to 17pc of the two million Ethiopian migrants are believed to live in Saudi Arabia.

Saudi officials have been deporting Ethiopian migrants en masse since 2012 following the passage of a foreign workers’ law. Last year, nearly 100,000 migrants were forcibly repatriated from the country. Over a third of these were women and children.