{"id":15190,"date":"2026-11-01T12:04:19","date_gmt":"2026-11-01T11:04:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.alexanderbeephoto.com\/portfolio-2\/djibouti-migrants-desert\/"},"modified":"2026-11-01T13:07:01","modified_gmt":"2026-11-01T12:07:01","slug":"ethiopian-migrants-djibouti","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.alexanderbeephoto.com\/en\/portfolio\/ethiopian-migrants-djibouti\/","title":{"rendered":"Migrants: Crossing the Desert"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

This photo story follows Ethiopian migrants in Djibouti between 2019 and 2022. Every day, women, men and children leave their country on foot. They hope to find work in Saudi Arabia and a better life, but the road leads through the desert.<\/p>\n

Ethiopian migrants in Djibouti, on the road to Yemen<\/h2>\n

Djibouti is a small country in the Horn of Africa, bordered by Somalia, Eritrea and Ethiopia. Its coast opens onto the Gulf of Aden, the gateway to Yemen. Since the 2000s, the country has become a transit point for thousands of people. In summer, they walk in temperatures close to 50 degrees, where drinking water is almost as rare as shade. The journey is mostly on foot and can take several months.<\/p>\n

Four migrants walking across a salt flat by the sea, Djibouti \u2013 Ethiopian migrants in Djibouti \u2013 Alexander Bee photo<\/figure>\n

Several reasons explain these departures. In Ethiopia, youth unemployment, droughts and violence push many families to leave. Meanwhile, smugglers organise the trip in stages, from the border areas of Dikhil or Galafi to Obock in the north. According to the International Organization for Migration (IOM), almost 100,000 migrants passed through Djibouti between January and June 2022.<\/p>\n

Dikhil and Obock: daily life on a migration route<\/h2>\n

In Dikhil, in the south, exhausted migrants crowd into unfinished houses. Nearly 200 people can share two rooms without doors. Women, who are a minority, are particularly exposed to violence. Those who can no longer pay the smugglers beg for food.<\/p>\n

Further north, towards Obock, the landscape offers only volcanic stones and no tree for shelter from the sun. That is why the IOM mobile unit rescues dehydrated migrants there, and water tanks have been placed along the corridor. This photo story shows these marches and breaks: aerial views of the desert, groups in the shade of an acacia, portraits of young migrants and of women in colourful headscarves.<\/p>\n

This story is part of Alexander Bee\u2019s documentary photography portfolio<\/a>. You can also discover Lake Assal: the salt caravans<\/a>. To buy a print or use a photo, contact me<\/a>. To learn more: Djibouti on Wikipedia<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This photo story follows Ethiopian migrants in Djibouti between 2019 and 2022. Every day, women, men and children leave their country on foot. They hope to find work in Saudi Arabia and a better life, but the road leads through […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":14977,"parent":15189,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-15190","page","type-page","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nEthiopian migrants in Djibouti | Alexander Bee<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Photo report on Ethiopian migrants in Djibouti: the walk across the desert towards the Red Sea and Yemen, alongside the IOM mobile unit. 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