Dina Mahmoud (Aden, London)
In light of international estimates indicating that the number of migrants in Yemen has reached approximately 308 thousand people, the majority of whom are Africans, local and international humanitarian organizations have renewed their concerns about the deteriorating humanitarian situation that these people face, due to the continuing conflict in this country on the one hand, and in light of reports indicating They are sometimes exposed to violence and abuse on the other hand.
These organizations, including local civil society organizations, called for the need to provide urgent funding to help these migrants return to their homes, warning that many of them are being exposed to “horrific and brutal violence,” and that their numbers have reached levels they described as “critical.”
According to human rights activists, the vast majority of African migrants who arrive in Yemen consider this country to be nothing but a “transit station” for them on their way to other destinations, but many of them are forced to remain in its territory, which exposes them to various violations.
According to recent data revealed by the International Organization for Migration, the number of African migrants arriving in Yemen on boats witnessed a significant increase during the past year to exceed 97 thousand people, which is about 25 thousand more migrants than the number recorded in 2022, which exceeded 73 thousand.
This increase represented a steady increase in the number of migrants coming to Yemen from East African countries, in the period following the decline of the threat of the Corona virus, which warns that this number will return to the record level, which was recorded in the period before the epidemic, and exceeded 138 thousand. immigrant.
The rise in the number of these migrants again, according to experts, is due to the living pressures they suffer from in their homelands, as a result of political unrest and worsening economic problems, which ultimately makes many of them victims of human trafficking networks.
Experts pointed out that the suffering of hundreds of thousands of migrants stranded in Yemen is in addition to the difficulties experienced by approximately 4.5 million displaced people, who were forced to flee their cities and villages there, due to the impact of the conflict that has been going on for a full decade, in this country, which is classified among the poorest. Countries of the world.
Amid the continuing conflict that has left more than half of Yemen’s population in need of humanitarian aid, the International Organization for Migration called for extending a helping hand to migrants there, in order to enable them to what it described as a “safe and voluntary return to their countries of origin,” especially after last month witnessed an influx of a number A large number of migratory flights come by sea from Djibouti, which constitutes a major transit point for those coming from the Horn of Africa.
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