Date: Tue, 20 Dec 2011 21:01:10 +0100
Thousands of Ethiopian Migrants Stranded in Northern Yemen
Lisa Schlein | Geneva
December 20, 2011
The International Organization for Migration says it is concerned and
fearful about the fate of thousands of Ethiopian migrants stranded in
deplorable conditions for many months in northern Yemen. Lisa Schlein
reports for VOA from IOM headquarters in Geneva the organization says it has
run out of funds to repatriate the migrants.
For more than one year, the International Organization for Migration has
been providing critical humanitarian assistance to thousands of Ethiopian
migrants stranded in Yemen who want to return home.
The agency so far, has managed to repatriate more than 6,000 migrants.
Thousands more are waiting to return, but the International Organization for
Migration says, except for a lucky few, it cannot help them because it has
run out of money.
IOM spokeswoman Jemini Pandya says thanks to some emergency funding from
Saudi Arabia and Japan, the agency will be able to charter three planes to
help another group of migrants return home to Ethiopia soon.
"We have had 1,000 migrants travel-ready for some time now, but until we
received the stop-gap funding from Saudi Arabia and Japan, we have not been
able to take them home," she said. "In the next few days and weeks, we will
be able to help most of them through these three charter flights. Among them
are unaccompanied minors and medical cases. And, these medical cases include
migrants who have suffered torture at the hands of smugglers, mainly through
gunshot wounds or broken limbs."
The International Organization for Migration is urgently appealing for $2.5
million to assist an additional 6,000 Ethiopian migrants to return home.
In the past year, nearly 18,300 Ethiopian migrants have been registered in
the northern Yemeni town of Haradh on the border with Saudi Arabia. Many
were returned by Saudi Arabia because of their illegal status.
Every year, tens of thousands of desperate Ethiopians make the perilous
journey across the Gulf of Aden to Yemen. They head toward Saudi Arabia in
hopes of finding jobs in the Middle East.
Pandya says the vast majority of migrants are living in open, unprotected
spaces in the town center without access to food, water, sanitation,
shelter, or the means to earn money. She says the instability in Yemen has
further marginalized the migrants.
"They have been made even more vulnerable by allegations that they have been
recruited by opposing factions to fight," said Pandya. "Their exhausting
ordeal, their exposure to the elements without adequate nutrition and
sanitation and their exposure to violence means that many migrants are
suffering from diseases and illnesses, from snake bites and are showing
signs of mistreatment from smugglers and traffickers. And these include
severe burns, broken limbs, gunshot wounds and other physical and sexual
assaults."
The International Organization for Migration reports at least 30 migrants in
Haradh have died in the past month, although it believes that figure is
probably higher. The agency says the situation is critical and will only get
worse the longer the migrants remain stranded along the Yemeni-Saudi Arabian
border.
The organization is repeating its call to donors for more money so it can
get the Ethiopian migrants home as soon as
possible.
Ethiopian young girls waiting to travel to Yemen in Bossaso, the commercial
city of the semi-autonomous region of Puntland and the launching pad of the
people trying to cross the Gulf of Aden to Yemen. (File Photo)
Photo: AP
Ethiopian young girls waiting to travel to Yemen in Bossaso, the commercial
city of the semi-autonomous region of Puntland and the launching pad of the
people trying to cross the Gulf of Aden to Yemen. (File Photo)
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