MMTF

Since the start of the year Yemen has faced serious political turmoil, initially mirroring the wave of protests across the Middle East and North Africa calling for social, economic and democratic reforms in respective states. The Danish Refugee Council and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), in consultation with the Yemen MMTF, has been monitoring how the situation would impact mixed migration flows from the Horn of Africa to Yemen. Many migrants and refugees told DRC that they were aware about the civil unrest in Yemen as well as the risks involved. Despite the unstable situation, more than 43,000 refugees and migrants from the Horn of Africa arrived on Yemeni shores during the first six months of 2011. This represents twice as much in 2011 compared to the same period in 2010, when 21,592 people reached Yemen.

DRC YEMEN commissioned a study on the mixed migration, prompted by the finalization of the European Commission project that started in 2008 entitled, Support to Individuals, State and Non-State actors to manage Migration and refugees across Somalia/Yemen gap. The study is intended to gain an overall picture of the protection situation during migration from the Horn of Africa to Yemen, as well as the situation migrants faced upon arrival. This report is based on a three-week research mission to the south of Yemen by the external consultant in January 2011. It is also based on registration data of new arrivals in Yemen gathered systematically by the Danish Refugee Council, as well as DRC protection reports from interviews it conducts with new arrivals on the Red Sea coast.

UNHCR Yemen is selling photo-book on Somalis' journey to Yemen with proceeds benefiting refugees. Across the Horn of Africa, war, abuse and poverty make millions miserable and drive thousands to attempt to flee. With land borders cut off or closed, and surrounded by conflict on all sides, one of the only means of escape is by sea. This book follows the journey of desperate emigrants, or tahrib, to their embarkation points with smugglers on the coast of Somalia, on a perilous voyage across the Gulf of Aden, and onward in the search for a better life. The cost is just $50, or one million Somali shillings. With a one in twenty chance of not making it to the other side alive, it is a price they must risk their lives for. Even then, it is a journey which for many will remain unfinished.

On 2nd January 2011 a small boat carrying thirty-seven migrants departed from Obock port town in Djibouti and capsized near Bab Al-Mandab on the Yemeni coast. Only three Ethiopians and two Somalis survived. Omar and Mohamed, the two surviving Somalis, are brothers. In February 57 Somali refugees drowned when their boat capsized en-route to Yemen. There was just one survivor. Ahmed had swum for 23 hours before reaching the Yemeni coast near the port town of Bir Ali, some 400 kilometres east of Aden. Including the latest and tragic deaths, 87 people have drowned or gone missing in the waters between Somalia, Djibouti and Yemen this year.

IOM Press Briefing Note Date: 20 September 2011 More than 3,000 Ethiopian migrants who desperately want to return home have been stranded on the Yemeni-Saudi border in extremely difficult conditions for several months, with IOM unable to evacuate the vast majority of them due to lack of funds. The group of 3,000 migrants, who have registered with IOM to be evacuated, are among an estimated...

The number of people fleeing their homes in Somalia on a daily basis has been falling this month, but a growing number of Somalis have been risking the high seas to reach Yemen. In Somalia, figures compiled by a network of UNHCR partners show a significant drop in the number of people arriving in Mogadishu. UNHCR spokesman Adrian Edwards told journalists in Geneva on Friday that the influx of...

IOM Press Briefing Notes - Tuesday 21 June 2011 IOM Resumes Evacuation of Stranded Ethiopian Migrants from Yemen As it Continues Providing Assistance to those Displaced by Conflict – More than 1,900 Ethiopian migrants stranded near Yemen’s border with Saudi Arabia in desperate conditions and unable to return home are to be helped by IOM as it resumes a humanitarian evacuation...

At least 10 people have lost their lives in a tragic boat smuggling incident on the Gulf of Aden after a two-day journey from Somalia to Yemen. According to initial reports citing some of the original 115 passengers found on Yemen's shore near Al Hamra, some 200 kilometers east of Aden, the smuggler's boat set sail from Bosasso, Puntland in northern Somalia early on Sunday morning. Ten...

UNHCR Briefing Note - 29 April 2011 UNHCR is alarmed by the continuing deterioration of the situation in Somalia, forcing an increasing number of Somalis into displacement. The number of Somali refugees arriving to neighbouring countries during the first quarter of this year has more than doubled in comparison to the same period in 2010. Between January and March this year, nearly 50,000 new...