Refugees in Yemen

In November 2009, Khadra Mohammed, the Executive Director of Pittsburgh Refugee Center, traveled to Yemen to visit refugees who make the dangerous boat trip across the Gulf of Aden, fleeing their homelands of Somalia, Ethiopia and Eritrea. Many do not survive the journey, as human smugglers toss the refugees overboard before reaching the coast in Yemen. As of December 2008, there were 140,174 refugees registered with the UNHCR Yemen office. Most of these refugees are Somali.

Refugees in Yemen are warehoused in refugee camps or live in urban areas. They have very little protection and poor access to daily necessities such as food, water and medical care.

Many of the refugees who arrive in Yemen are orphaned children who lost their parents to the war in their homelands or died along the way of the perilous journey. These refugee children, called unaccompanied minors by the UNHCR, are extremely vulnerable.

The refugee crisis in Yemen is very little known. Refugees who arrive in Yemen have very few options, as both local integration and resettlement to another country are limited.

 

To learn more about the plight of refugees living in Yemen, please visit the UNHCR Yemen home page: http://www.unhcr.org/cgi-bin/texis/vtx/page?page=49e486ba6