clear

Creating new perspectives since 2009

UN: 600 Africa migrants arrived in Yemen last September 

October 10, 2020 at 12:52 pm

Irregular African migrants are seen at a prison in Taizz, Yemen on 25 December 2019 [Abdulnaser Alseddik/Anadolu Agency]

The International Organisation for Migration (IOM) announced on Friday that more than 600 African migrants arrived in Yemen last September.

This came in a report released by the IOM, of which Anadolu Agency obtained a copy, on the number of migrants entering Yemen during the past month.

The IOM stated that 83 per cent of migrants are men, 13 per cent are women, 3 per cent are boys, and only 1 per cent are girls.

The report disclosed: “93 per cent of migrants are Ethiopians, while the other 7 per cent hold Somali nationality.”

The report indicated that 40 per cent of the migrants went to Saudi Arabia, while 60 per cent stayed in Yemen.

The organisation pointed out that from the start of 2020 until 30 September, 33,122 migrants arrived in Yemen, as migration waves have significantly declined since the outbreak of the pandemic.

The organisation also explained that the announced statistics are only estimates, indicating that the actual number of African migrants entering Yemen may be much higher.

African migrants cross the Yemeni lands as an immigration route to the Gulf countries, especially Saudi Arabia, while many of them stay in Yemen to work.

READ: Nearly 3 million migrants stranded by COVID-19

In a report issued in early October, Amnesty International accused the Saudi authorities of torturing Ethiopian migrants who have been expelled from Yemen by the Houthi group.

The Saudi authorities did not comment on the international organization’s accusations, which revealed testimonies about the different types of torture and ill-treatment that Ethiopians migrants were subjected to.

Despite the restrictions imposed on travel due to the outbreak of coronavirus, at least 34,000 Ethiopian migrants returned to their homeland from all over the world from April to September 2020, including 3,998 people who were extradited from Saudi Arabia.