Somali refugee sit-in gets violent

A month-long sit-in staged by Somali refugees in Yemen turned violent on Saturday when security forces clashed with demonstrators demanding resettlement in the United States or Canada. “The authorities took steps to disperse Somali protesters who started attacking security personnel,” the interior ministry said in a statement on Saturday. A spokeswoman for the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) in Geneva, Astrid van Genderen Stort, told IRIN that a group of refugees tried to enter the agency’s offices in the capital, Sana, and attempted to block staff from leaving. Angry refugees demanded greater assistance for their most vulnerable kinsman, more healthcare and more protection, assistance in urban areas and resettlement for all of them. Some protestors also demand that their national identity cards, which allow them to work and send their children to school, be renewed. According to van Genderen Stort, local police intervened to disband the demonstration using water and teargas in a “quite a violent scene,” with protestors responding by throwing stones at police. On Saturday, five people were reported injured, one seriously. By Sunday, one refugee had reportedly died from as yet indeterminate causes. Another 8-10 Somalis were reported injured. Van Genderen Stort added that some of the protestors’ demands, such as greater assistance for particularly vulnerable groups of refugees, could be met by the aid agency. The demand for resettlement of all the refugees in western host countries, however, was impossible to meet, she added. “We’ve explained that we can meet certain demands and certain ones we cannot,” she said. “It’s not in our power and not in our mandate.” She noted that the agency was looking into providing greater access to healthcare, but would be better positioned to offer assistance if the refugees moved into camps. Van Genderen Stort went on to note that the agency would look into cases where refugees met the criteria for resettlement. But while UNHCR can make recommendations in such cases, it is the countries to which refugees are resettled – which have stringent quota systems – that ultimately decide. The interior ministry, meanwhile, condemned "the intransigence of the demonstrating refugees and their refusal to negotiate.” The ministry added: "The refugees’ demands can be carried out neither by the UNHCR nor by the Yemeni government." Yemen is one of the poorest countries in the world. Despite the intercession of security forces, hundreds of refugees are still camped out along the street behind the UNHCR offices, continuing a sit-in that began on 13 November. 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.