Saudi warns against defying Yemen travel ban

Yemeni security sources have warned that the amount of Saudi citizens defying the Saudi travel ban on Yemen has increased. Some of whom have joined Daesh and other extremist organisations.

“Security agencies in Yemen have noticed that a number of Saudis aged between 20 and 30 come to Yemen violating the travel ban to join terrorist organisations as they subscribe to extremist thoughts and ideologies,” a Yemeni security source from Al-Mukalla told Al-Watan newspaper.

The spokesman of the Saudi Passports Department, Lieutenant Colonel Talal Shalhoub, confirmed to the Saudi Gazette that Yemen is one of the countries that Saudi nationals are banned from visiting.

“We have various methods to identify individuals who have violated the travel ban and visited banned countries,” Shalhoub said. He also spoke about the sanctions in place for Saudi citizens, should they enter Yemen. “Violators of this law will be fined or prevented from traveling abroad or given both punishments.”

The travel ban was put in place in April 2015 after 29-year-old Saudi citizen Ahmed Bin Mubarak Al-Hamami was attacked by Houthi rebels.