Rights activists demand release of Somali refugees

Human Rights activists on Tuesday demanded the release of 38 Somali refugees, in detention since mid-December for staging a month-long protest in front of UN refugee agency UNCHR’s offices in the capital, Sana. Yemen’s National Organisation for Defending Rights and Liberties (HOOD) published the names of 38 Somali detainees and demanded their immediate and unconditional release. "We demand the immediate release of these refugees without any conditions," HOOD Chairman Mohammed Allaw told IRIN. "They were detained while exercising their legal and constitutional right to stage peaceful demonstrations." Allaw, himself a lawyer, added that the detention itself constituted a crime punishable by law. There has been no response from the government so far. The sit-in, organised by hundreds of Somali refugees, began in mid-November and went on until being broken up by security forces on 17 December. Demonstrators demanded more assistance for their kinsman and greater healthcare and protection, as well as resettlement in the United States or Canada. However, certain criteria has to be met for resettlement, according to the UN agency. Some protestors further demanded the renewal of their national identity cards, which allow them to work and send their children to public school. Somalis entering Yemen are automatically granted refugee status by the government. At the end of October, there were some 79,000 refugees registered with the UNHCR in Yemen, more than 68,000 of whom were from Somalia. Most Somalis live in urban areas, with roughly 7,500 staying at the Kharaz refugee camp in the Lahj governorate in the country’s south.