IOM resumes returning Ethiopian migrants from Yemen, appeals for $1 million
By Tesfa-Alem Tekle
December 1, 2010 (ADDIS ABABA) – The International Organization for Migration (IOM) said this week that it has resumed returning hundreds of Ethiopian migrants stranded in northern Yemen in the last week.
The IOM said it urgently needs funds to assist the illegal migrants and has renewed an appeal of about $1 million dollars to accomplish the operation of returning Ethiopian migrants who are living in desperate conditions in the gulf state.
On Saturday the IOM resumed a voluntarily return of 434 stranded Ethiopians which will continue till December 9.
The returnees include 140 Ethiopian women and minors currently held in Yemeni detention centers around the country as illegal migrants.
In mid November, IOM has returned 610 Ethiopian migrants including 51 children and 10 women.
They were part of an initial group of 2,000 Ethiopian migrants referred to IOM for assistance.
IOM said, “the migrants are Stranded at the Yemeni border with Saudi Arabia in very poor health and with no food, shelter or the means to either continue their journey or return home, the migrants had been living out in open spaces and surviving on whatever scraps of food they could find.”
UNICEF is also providing care to vulnerable groups, mainly children. Upon return the migrants are offered $125 from IOM’s transit centre in Addis Ababa to get to their home towns.
Though Yemen is considered as the poorest country in the Arabian Peninsula, the country has long been a destination and transit for illegal African migrants mainly due its proximity to the Horn of Africa and wealthy Gulf states.
Although most of the migrants in the Yemeni town of Haradh are young men from Ethiopia, there are also many others coming from Somalia and Sudan.
According to the IOM, the condition of most of the migrants in and around Yemen’s Haradh is very poor.
(ST)