YEMEN: Agencies scramble to help stranded migrants

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HARADH, 5 December 2010 (IRIN) - The International Organization for Migration (IOM) and humanitarian partners are scrambling to help over 3,000 African migrants stranded at the Yemeni border with Saudi Arabia, where 30 migrants have died in recent weeks. "We are seeing a dramatic increase in migrants needing help,” IOM Senior Operations Officer Bill Lorenz said in a press release on 3 December. “Over the past week, the number of migrants being referred to IOM has jumped to about 76 a day.” The Saudi government has reportedly enacted a strict policy of deporting African migrants since September, and many of them - mostly from Ethiopia, some of whom are in extremely poor health - are now in the northern Yemeni border town of Haradh, which already hosts 17,000 Yemeni families displaced by fighting between government forces and the Houthi-led Shia rebels in neighbouring Sa’ada Province. [ http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportID=91189 ] “The Saudi authorities have been increasing their border controls and also erected a fence. This makes it more difficult for migrants to enter Saudi Arabia and many are therefore stranded in Haradh,” Emilie Page, the eligibility officer for the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) stationed in Haradh, told IRIN. [ http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportID=90896 ] Saudi border policy changed in response to instability in northern Yemen, after the Saudi military was drawn into the fighting between the government and the Houthi movement in 2009. “An increasing number of [migrants] have been deported from Saudi Arabia and left at Haradh with nothing more than the clothes they stand in,” said the IOM press release. “With no means of either continuing their journey or returning home, the migrants are sleeping out in the open, dehydrated and trying to survive on whatever scraps of food they can find." Walking for weeks Even in December, when it is winter, temperatures can reach 30 degrees Celsius or more. Groups of African migrants can be seen walking north on the 200 km road between Haradh and the port city of Hudeida, on the Red Sea, with no possessions but the occasional bottle of water, and have to depend on the mercy of locals for sustenance. Some migrants told IRIN that they had been walking for weeks, and could wind up in the hands of smugglers, who can use violence to extort payment for getting people into Saudi Arabia. [ http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportID=91263 ] “The primary health issues facing migrants are related to their lack of food and water,” Carolyn Merry, head of mission for the medical relief group, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF-Spain), told IRIN. “Our focus was on IDPs [internally displaced persons] but we also provide services to whoever needs them, including the local population and migrants.” [ http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportID=90945 ] UNHCR has registered 3,100 migrants with a local partner, the Charitable Society for Social Welfare (CSSW), and reported that besides Ethiopians, there were also migrants from Nigeria, Chad, Sudan, Somalia and Eritrea. More than 100 asylum seekers have been identified so far. “Most of the Ethiopians are migrants who tried to go to Saudi Arabia and were either deported back to Yemen or unable to cross the border,” said Page, the UNHCR officer. “Most of them are willing to go back to their country.” IOM, working with UNHCR and Ethiopian immigration officials, aims to have repatriated over 1,000 Ethiopians by 6 December. The group is appealing for US$1 million to fund further repatriation. “In the mid-term, we want to promote a holistic response, including dialogue between governments, sensitization of humanitarian partners, and building capacities of all parties,” Bill Lorenz, IOM senior operations officer, told IRIN. There are also ongoing efforts by the Mixed Migration Task Force, a consortium of intergovernmental agencies and NGOs, to inform citizens in the Horn of Africa about the hardships of migrating. Mohammed, a young Ethiopian, told IRIN: “We heard about the problems on the sea, but we did not expect to find it so hard here.” dm/oa/he © IRIN. All rights reserved. More humanitarian news and analysis: http://www.IRINnews.org