Ethiopian Migrants Stranded in Yemen

September 20, 2011

Over three thousand Ethiopian migrants – who risked their lives leaving the Horn of Africa – find themselves stranded in Yemen, near the Saudi Arabian border. The migrants want to return home, but the International Organization for Migration said it has no money to evacuate them.

Lives at risk

The trip to Yemen is perilous. Migrants often hire smugglers to take them across the Gulf of Aden or Red Sea. Every year, many die at the hands of the smugglers or are robbed and left with nothing. Those who survive the traffickers or make the long journey to northern Yemen are usually hungry, exhausted or sick.

Nevertheless, many have managed to reach Yemen. The IOM says there are about 70,000 Ethiopian migrants who live in Yemen doing domestic work or employed on Khat plantations.

But while many decide to remain in Yemen, large numbers want to go to Saudi Arabia. Among them are the 3,000 migrants now stranded at the Saudi border.

"The ultimate goal of most of them is to actually go through and earn themselves a job in Saudi. Unfortunately, visas to Saudi are very restrictive and so most of them try getting across by irregular means and through traffickers," Nicoletta Giordano is the IOM Chief of Mission in Yemen.

The traffickers often abuse the migrants in the same way smugglers did in crossing the Gulf of Aden and Red Sea.