Background: Migrants and Asylum Seekers Arriving in Yemen by Sea
Since 2007 well over 100,000 people have embarked upon a perilous journey, hoping to reach the shores of Yemen in boats that are put to sea from the Somali port city of Bosasso and the coast of Djibouti further west. Nearly all of them are Somali and Ethiopian nationals.[1]Many hope only to pass through Yemen, traveling onwards to find work in the more prosperous economies of Saudi Arabia and beyond. But many others are fleeing war or persecution and seek protection in Yemen as refugees. Some make the journey for a combination of reasons, having found neither safety nor a way to make ends meet at home.
The number of people making this journey has increased dramatically in recent years. In 2008 a record 50,000 asylum seekers and migrants arrived on Yemen’s beaches, up from less than 27,000 the year before.[2] That record had already been broken by the end of September 2009, with 50,486 recorded new arrivals in just nine months—a 50 percent increase over the number of arrivals during the same period in 2008.[3]
The people these numbers describe are participating in one of the most dangerous—and most ignored—international migrations ongoing anywhere in the world. This report documents abuse faced by people attempting the crossing. It also describes the abuses endured by Ethiopian asylum seekers who arrive in Yemen to face official discrimination and systematic government efforts to arrest and deport them back to Ethiopia.
Somalis Arriving in Yemen
The Yemeni government recognizes all Somalis who arrive in the country as prima facierefugees—meaning they are not individually required to prove that they are eligible for refugee status—and they are free to remain in Yemen. There are no reliable statistics on the number of Somalis living in the country. UNHCR has registered some 150,000.[4] Some Yemeni government officials, without citing any empirical basis for their figures, believe that the true number of Somalis living in the country could be several times higher, since an unknown number do not bother to register even though they are automatically entitled to refugee status.[5] At the same time, many Somalis simply pass through Yemen, moving on to other countries in search of work or for other reasons.
Somalia has been without a functioning central government since 1991. Since the end of 2006 many Somalis have seen the already-precarious situation in their country take a dramatic turn for the worse. The years since then have been characterized by brutal warfare, and every party to the conflict has committed war crimes and other serious abuses.[6] Thousands of Somalis have been killed and millions rendered destitute by war and drought.[7]
Vast numbers of people, including most of the population of the capital, Mogadishu, have been forced to flee their homes. All told, some 1.3 million Somalis are displaced inside Somalia and the country has generated tens of thousands of refugees in 2009 alone.[8] The Somalis who arrive in Yemen every year are part of that larger exodus.
Ethiopians Arriving in Yemen
During the first 10 months of 2009, more than half of the people who arrived in Yemen by boat were Ethiopians—35,272 out of 63,718 recorded arrivals.[9] Most estimates, including those of Ethiopian community leaders in Sana’a, put the total number of Ethiopians living in Yemen at between 10,000 and 20,000. These include refugees, asylum seekers, undocumented people in Yemen, and others—mainly female domestic workers—who arrive in Yemen legally to work.[10]
There is a widely held perception, fueled in part by the government of Yemen, that the Somalis arriving in Yemen are all refugees while the Ethiopians are all illegal migrants in search of work. But this is a gross oversimplification. It is probably true that a large majority of the tens of thousands of Ethiopians who arrive in Yemen by boat are primarily motivated by the search for a job. For precisely that reason most travel onwards to Saudi Arabia and beyond almost immediately after landing on Yemeni beaches.[11]
Many Ethiopians, however, are in Yemen because they face severe persecution at home.[12] Ethiopia’s government has grown increasingly repressive over the past decade.[13] As of September 2009 UNHCR had registered over 11,000 Ethiopian refugees in Yemen. Over 1,500 Ethiopians applied for asylum between January 2008 and October 2009.[14] But as discussed below, these figures underestimate the number of Ethiopians who arrive in Yemen with a valid basis for seeking asylum. Many are discouraged from seeking refugee status by discriminatory government policies or are arrested and deported back to Ethiopia before they have the chance to apply.
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Box 1: Ethiopian Somalis Ethiopia is home to a large population of ethnic Somalis who hail primarily from the country’s eastern Somali region. Because they are well aware of the harsh treatment meted out to Ethiopian nationals by the Yemeni government, Somali Ethiopians often claim to be from Somalia when they reach Yemen. This allows them to enjoy the same prima facie refugee status the Yemeni government accords to Somali nationals. Because of this, there is no reliable information about the numbers of Ethiopian Somalis in Yemen. The relatively small number who do declare themselves as Ethiopian nationals and seek asylum often tell UNHCR officials that they are fleeing abuses linked to conflict at home.[15] For several years the Ethiopian government and the rebel Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF) have been engaged in a protracted and often brutal conflict characterized by widespread military abuses in many parts of the region.[16] |
A Heavy Burden on a Poor Country
The massive influx of refugees and migrants into Yemen is a difficult burden for the country and its government to bear. Yemen is the poorest country in the Arab world and globally it sits near the bottom of the Human Development Index.[17] Its population suffers from rates of both poverty and unemployment estimated to stand at roughly 35 percent.[18] The country’s hosting of so many Somali refugees has put such a strain on the local economy—and on public opinion—that the government is loathe to exacerbate that strain by welcoming any more groups of refugees. Already, the country’s worsening economic climate has led to a rise in anti-immigrant sentiment in Yemen and acts of discrimination and violence against refugees are not uncommon.
Regionally, Yemen pays another political price for the refugees and migrants who land upon its shores. Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states place heavy pressure on the government of Yemen to staunch the flow of migrants who transit through Yemen looking to work illegally in the more prosperous economies of the region. As UNCHR told Human Rights Watch, many of Yemen’s neighbors are certain to lobby against any effort to push through refugee policy reforms because “they say that if Yemen has a progressive [refugee] legislation it will attract more people who will then come to their countries.”[19]
The Yemeni government is also under strong pressure from the Ethiopian government to repatriate all of its citizens who enter the country illegally, including asylum seekers. Many sources interviewed by Human Rights Watch believe that Yemen has entered into a formal agreement with Ethiopia not to recognize any Ethiopian national as a refugee.[20] Whether a formal agreement exists or not, Ethiopian government pressure is a real factor inhibiting positive change in the government’s policies towards Ethiopian asylum seekers.
[1] During the first nine months of 2009 only 62 out of 50,486 recorded new arrivals were from countries other than Somalia and Ethiopia. They included 22 Tanzanians, 20 Eritreans, 15 Djiboutians, two Sudanese, one Nigerian, and one person whose nationality was unknown. Tracking data on file with Human Rights Watch.
[2] Mixed Migration Task Force Update, no. 8, August 2009.
[3] Tracking data on file with Human Rights Watch. See also “Yemen: humanitarian crisis in the north and growing arrivals by sea,” UNHCR briefing notes, September 29, 2009, http://www.unhcr.org/4ac1d7719.html (accessed September 30, 2009).
[4] As of August 2009 UNHCR estimated that there were 149,586 Somali refugees in Yemen, Yemen Fact Sheet, July-August 2009.
[5] For example Yemen’s foreign affairs ministry has stated that the true number of Somalis living in Yemen is close to 700,000. See “Yemen-Somalia: Bracing for a fresh influx of Somali refugees,” IRIN, September 1, 2009.
[6] See Human Rights Watch, “So Much to Fear”: War Crimes and the Devastation of Somalia, ISBN: 1-56432-415-X, December 2008, http://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/reports/somalia1208web.pdf; Shell Shocked: Civilians Under Siege in Mogadishu, vol. 19, No. 12(a), August 2007, http://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/reports/somalia0807webwcover.pdf; “Somalia: New Violence Highlights Need for Independent Inquiry,” Human Rights Watch news release, February 5, 2009, http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2009/02/05/somalia-new-violence-highlights-need-independent-inquiry; “Conflict and drought force more than 50,000 Somalis to flee to Kenya this year,” UNHCR news story, September 25, 2009, http://www.unhcr.org/4abce9ea9.html (accessed October 2, 2009).
[7] There are no reliable figures on the number of civilians killed by conflict in Somalia. The Elman Human Rights Center, a Somali human rights organization, attempts to track the numbers and estimates some 18,000 civilians were killed in the fighting between January 2007 and June 2009. It is not possible to confirm this figure, but it is widely quoted because no other figures exist. See Stephanie Nebehay, “Violence Taking Heavy Toll on Somalia Aid Agencies,” Reuters, June 26, 2009, http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/LQ422794.htm (accessed September 29, 2009). Aid agencies estimated that some 3.6 million Somalis—over half of the country’s remaining population—were in urgent need of humanitarian assistance by September 2009. See “Somalia Faces Worst Food Crisis in 18 Years: UN,” AFP, September 21, 2009, http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5ir0okC5PmVWntQsDU45mtgdRmizw (accessed September 29, 2009).
[8] UNHCR estimates that between May and September 2009, 250,000 people were forced to flee their homes in Mogadishu alone. In 2009 new refugees have been arriving in Kenya’s overburdened Dadaab refugee camps at the rate of over 6,000 per month. See “Conflict and drought force more than 50,000 Somalis to flee to Kenya this year,” UNHCR News Story, September 25, 2009, http://www.unhcr.org/4abce9ea9.html (accessed October 2, 2009); Human Rights Watch, From Horror to Hopelessness: Kenya’s Forgotten Somali Refugee Crisis, ISBN: 1-56432-465-6, March 2009, http://www.hrw.org/en/reports/2009/03/29/horror-hopelessness.
[9] Tracking data on file with Human Rights Watch.
[10] Human Rights Watch interviews with humanitarian officials and Ethiopian refugee community leaders, Aden and Sana’a, July 2009. See also Lobna Abdel Hadi and Davide Carnemolla, “Mixed Migration and Yemen as a Transit Country,” UNHCR-IOM joint study, February-July 2009, p. 9, unpublished draft on file with Human Rights Watch.
[11] A UNHCR-IOM study on mixed migration to Yemen found that of a sample of 112 Ethiopians in Yemen, only 31 intended to remain in the country. “Mixed Migration and Yemen as a Transit Country,” p. 11.
[12] Human Rights Watch interviews with Ethiopians recently arrived in Yemen, Sana’a, July 2009. See also Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), “No Choice: Somali and Ethiopian Refugees, Asylum Seekers and Migrants Crossing the Gulf of Aden,” June 2008, p. 27, http://doctorswithoutborders.org/publications/article.cfm?id=2821&cat=special-report (accessed October 2, 2009). The report notes that in interviews with Ethiopians arriving along the Yemeni coast by boat, “the majority…cited lack of work and/or poverty as their main reasons for leaving, most of them indicating that they wanted to go to Saudi Arabia to work. However, one fourth of the interviewees mentioned insecurity or political reasons, with some also stating lack of work.”
[13] See Human Rights Watch, Suppressing Dissent: Human Rights Abuses and Political Repression in Ethiopia’s Oromia Region, vol. 17, no. 7(A), May 2005, http://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/reports/ethiopia0505.pdf; Collective Punishment: War Crimes and Crimes against Humanity in the Ogaden area of Ethiopia’s Somali Region, ISBN: 1-56432-322-6, June 2008, http://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/reports/ethiopia0608_1.pdf; “Ethiopia: New Law Ratchets up Repression,” Human Rights Watch news release, January 8, 2009, http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2009/01/08/ethiopia-new-law-ratchets-repression; and International Crisis Group, “Ethiopia: Ethnic Federalism and Its Discontents,” Africa Report no. 153, September 4, 2009, http://www.crisisgroup.org/home/index.cfm?id=6300&l=1 (accessed October 2, 2009).
[14] Human Rights Watch email correspondence with UNHCR official, October 2009.
[15] Human Rights Watch interview with UNHCR official, Sana’a, July 26, 2009.
[16] Human Rights Watch, Collective Punishment.
[17] In 2008 Yemen was ranked 140 out of 182 countries, United Nations Development Programme, “The Human Development Indices: A Statistical Update 2008,” http://hdrstats.undp.org/2008/countries/country_fact_sheets/cty_fs_YEM.html (accessed September 30, 2009)
[18] See Ginny Hill, Yemen: Fear of Failure, Chatham House-Middle East Programme, ISBN: MEP BP 09/03, November 2008, http://www.chathamhouse.org.uk/files/12576_bp1108yemen.pdf (accessed September 30, 2009); World Development Indicators database, World Bank, September 15, 2009, http://siteresources.worldbank.org/DATASTATISTICS/Re, sources/GNIPC.pdf (accessed October 2, 2009).
[19] Human Rights Watch interview with UNHCR Country Representative for Yemen, Sana’a, July 26, 2009.
[20] Human Rights Watch interviews with humanitarian and UN officials [locations and identities withheld], July and September 2009. UNHCR said that it “cannot confirm the existence of such an agreement between the two countries.” Correspondence between UNHCR and Human Rights Watch, October 2009, on file with Human Rights Watch.