United Nations: 138,000 African migrants arrived in Yemen in 2019
English - Saturday 15 February 2020 الساعة 04:15 pm
Aden, NewsYemen:
The International Organization for Migration said that "about 11,500 people traveled by sea, every month of the past year" - from the Horn of Africa to Yemen - which makes this sea route "the busiest way to migrate in the world."
Data gathered by the International Organization for Migration's "Displacement Tracking Matrix" showed that more than 138,000 people crossed the Gulf of Aden to Yemen last year, while during the same period, more than 110,000 migrants crossed the Mediterranean to Europe.
According to the data published by the United Nations News Center, 2019 is the second year in a row that the number of migrants across the eastern route to Yemen exceeds the number of those who sought to migrate through the Mediterranean crossings to Europe.
In the previous year, 2018, nearly 150,000 journeys made the sea route from the east of the continent.
The tragedies of migration across the sea to Yemen
According to the UN agency, nearly 90 per cent of those who arrived in Yemen in 2019 were planning to continue their journey, towards Saudi Arabia.
The vast majority of these migrants (92 per cent) come from the rural areas of Oromia, Amhara and Tigray, Ethiopia.
The regional director of the organization in the Horn of Africa and East Africa, Mohamed Abdiker, pointed out that at a time when "tragedies are widely reported along the Mediterranean migration routes to Europe," the organization's employees see daily "the types of harm that the young people of the Horn of Africa are exposed to." Human smugglers ’hands across the Gulf of Aden pass.
Five years of ongoing conflict in Yemen have not only prevented people from seeking to migrate on this sea route from the east of the continent, but the strict immigration policies in the Gulf towards illegal immigration do not seem to discourage migrants from taking the journey.
A 32-year-old Ethiopian man told IOM staff in Aden, Yemen, about his flight, saying that "about 280 people were crammed into one boat, to reach Yemen" with a lack of oxygen in the boat, stressing that some of these "committed suicide by throwing themselves in the sea".
Most migrants from the Horn of Africa to Yemen are not aware of the reality of the security situation in these country, as they face serious concerns related to their safety and protection from active fighting there, or from violations such as kidnapping and torture for ransom, exploitation and trafficking.
An Ethiopian migrant says that human traffickers detained them for a month when they arrived in Yemen, and were beaten, tortured, ill-treated and threatened if they did not pay a ransom: “My family sent $ 900 to save my life, so I was released with others.”
The international organization reported that it provided emergency life-saving support to migrants in need on the path of this migration.
The organization supports community development projects, from which they migrate.
The organization says, "The most effective protection mechanism for migrants is establishing legal pathways for migration." The organization is committed to supporting all countries along the eastern route "to improve migration management and ensure the safety and dignity of migrants".
The 2019 agreement between the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the Government of Ethiopia regarding the system of employing domestic workers and making them official immigration for 100,000 from Ethiopia to the Kingdom represents an encouraging step towards harnessing the economic and development benefits of immigration, while protecting migrants.
Smugglers and human traffickers send immigration boats from "Obock" in Djibouti and "Bossasso" in Somalia, and this year 38 percent of migrants arrived through Djibouti, while the majority (62 percent) came to the southern coast of Yemen from Somalia, according to IOM data.
