Clickbait post lures Ethiopians with non-existent ‘expense-free Dubai jobs’

The post was published on Facebook on January 5, 2023, and has since been shared more than 200 times.

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Screenshot showing the clickbait post, taken on January 18, 2023

Written in Afaan Oromoo, the post translates to: “Do you want to go to Dubai free of charge? A visa company named Go helps locals secure jobs in the country without incurring any expenses. You can use this opportunity to change your and your family’s life. Please click on this link and fill in the application.”

Ethiopia is one of Africa's fastest-growing economies but unemployment remains a major problem, pushing some of its citizens to search for work in other countries.

However, the links do not lead to any job sites.

Clickbait post

The URLs in the post reveal sites with unrelated information.

The first one connects to a website with a video showing an Ethiopian diaspora community meeting about the situation in Oromia.

As the Tigray conflict in Ethiopia calms, another is growing in Oromia, the country’s largest federal state.

Reports of fighting and massacres have emerged in recent days in this region haunted by a long-running insurgency.

The second site features a mobile app called “Givvy”.

Additionally, an internet search for “Go” found no such company in Ethiopia. AFP Fact Check came across an organisation called Go Ethiopia Tours, but its website and Facebook account did not have any such promotion.

The tour company told AFP Fact Check that it was not assisting with job searches in Dubai.

“Our company is not involved in securing jobs in Dubai for Ethiopians,” it said.

AFP Fact Check has debunked dozens of false job claims in Africa (see here, here, and here).