![[Yemen] Small fishing boats, like this one in Bossaso'o busy commercial port, carry up to 125 people when used to smuggle migrants from the Somali coast across the Gulf of Aden to Yemen. Smugglers charge $30 to $50 and sometimes throw their passengers out](https://assets.thenewhumanitarian.org/s3fs-public/styles/responsive_large_2x/public/images/20062156.jpg.webp?itok=Lc_P0wle "The fishermen are asking for help to get rid of illegal ships.")
Yemeni authorities deported 122 illegal migrants from Ethiopia along with 129 Somalis on 30 December, an official at the Immigration Authority said on condition of anonymity. This news ended a month’s speculation over the whereabouts and condition of these asylum seekers.
"The 122 Ethiopians who entered the country illegally were deported after representatives from the Ethiopian Embassy in Sana'a visited them and processed their documents," the Yemeni official told IRIN on Tuesday.
The Ethiopians had arrived at Yemen’s Bir Ali coast on 27 November 2006. They had spent two days at sea in rickety fishing boats crossing the shark-infested Gulf of Aden.
On arrival in Yemen, they were immediately apprehended by security forces and sent to the immigration authorities in Attaq, Shabwa governorate. From there they were taken to the northern governorate of Amran, where they spent about a month in the central prison. The immigration official said this was for security reasons.
The United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) had expressed concern over the status of the Ethiopians. In a statement issued on 1 December, the agency said it had been unsuccessful in its request to the Yemeni authorities to visit the detained asylum seekers and determine if there were any among the group who merited refugee status and therefore should not be deported.
Yemeni authorities used to allow migrants the opportunity to ask for asylum and undergo a screening process to determine their status. In this case, this did not happen.
"Yemeni officials told UNHCR staff on 30 November that all non-Somali new arrivals should be detained and deported to their home countries," Ron Redmond, UNHCR spokesman, said.
Due to historical links between the two countries, Somalis are granted automatic refugee status on arrival in Yemen when they register with the authorities.
Ethiopians are not granted this status and, therefore, often do not register but opt to travel on to other parts of Yemen or elsewhere in the Middle East. So far this year, 11,510 Somalis and 959 Ethiopians were transferred to UNHCR's reception centre in May'fa, according to the refugee agency.
According to the Ethiopian embassy officials in Sana'a , Ethiopians frequently try to go to Yemen and most of them enter the country illegally by sea.
"It all depends on the sea. When the sea is calm, the number could reach 600 people a week," said Abebe Biazen, an official with the Ethiopian Embassy, adding that more than 10,000 legal Ethiopians are registered with the embassy in Yemen. He estimated that some 500 Ethiopians try and enter Yemen by sea every week.
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Read a previous report on these Ethiopian migrants and hear the testimony of an Ethiopian woman who fled to Yemen only to find her life worse there.
This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions
