Government calls for help curtailing human smuggling

The government has called on the international community to help stop smugglers from bringing Somali and Ethiopian migrants and asylum seekers, often under hazardous sea conditions, into Yemen, an official said on Wednesday. “The question of migrants and asylum seekers from Horn of Africa countries is one of our priorities, and concerns us because they’re brought into the country illegally,” said Minister of Human Rights Dr Khadija al-Haisami. “We call on the international community to put an end to the smuggling which puts the lives of these people at risk.” The recently-appointed minister went on to urge the international community to help the government stem the flow of asylum seekers and migrants, who also place a burden on the national economy. “The support of international organisations to Yemen in this respect is very limited,” al-Haisami pointed out. The minister’s comments follow a 25 February incident in which smugglers forced their East African passengers into the waters of the Aden Gulf, just off the coast of Yemen. “On Saturday, our office in Aden… said it had information that a smuggler's boat sailing from Somalia had forced all of its 137 passengers into deep waters off the Yemeni coast before turning around and heading back to Somalia,” read a 28 February statement from the UN’s refugee agency, UNHCR. “Aboard were 134 Somalis and three Ethiopians, including men, women and children.” According to the refugee agency, 84 people had managed to reach shore safely by the evening of 27 February, while 33 were found dead on the beaches of Al-Hodeiya, some 10kms east of Bir Ali, on the southern coast. Another 20 passengers, including children, were still missing. “The survivors have been taken to the Maifa’a refugee reception centre in the governorate of Shabwa [about 760km southeast of the capital, Sana], where they were given medical care, food and other help,” said Khaled Sanafa, a protection officer at UNHCR’s Aden office. Migrants and asylum seekers are usually brought into Yemen by smugglers with a reputation for treating their passengers brutally. According to UNHCR, smugglers frequently beat passengers or force them overboard while still far from shore, sometimes with their hands tied behind their backs, leaving them at the mercy of the high seas. “The latest tragic incident once again highlights the urgent need for joint international and local efforts to address this problem and minimise the flow of desperate people who fall victim to ruthless smugglers,” the UNHCR noted in a statement. “The smuggling networks, which target migrants as well as asylum seekers, are well organised, with some of the people leaving their homes from as far away as Sri Lanka, Eritrea and Ethiopia.” The statement added that “the risks of the voyage are extremely high, with passengers often paying the ultimate price”. Between 12 January and mid-February, 48 boatloads of people arrived off the Yemeni coast from the Somali port of Bosasso. Among these were 2,528 Somalis, entitled to automatic refugee status in Yemen, which is a party to a 1951 refugee convention. This factor as well as the instability in their country has pushed many Somalis to leave their homeland in search of a better life, experts say. Yemen is often used as a transit country to other neighbouring countries such as oil-rich Saudi Arabia. Following recent incidents, UNHCR has warned would-be migrants and asylum seekers from the Horn of Africa against making the sea passage to Yemen with smugglers. The agency further called on donor governments to support the international community in its efforts to provide protection to internally displaced persons, particularly those from Puntland, in north-eastern Somalia, who live under particularly difficult circumstances. ”Without addressing the root causes of the outflow, progress in stemming the smuggling will be extremely limited,” UNHCR warned.