Yemen, hundreds of migrants killed on the border with Saudi Arabia: the number of migrants traveling from the Horn of Africa is growing

ROME - The border between Saudi Arabia and Yemen is a transit point for people attempting to cross from the Horn of Africa to Saudi Arabia and other Gulf countries. Across the border, however, they are welcomed by the network of unscrupulous traffickers who "help" them to travel along that route, often leaving them in the middle of the sea or on the borders, exposed to violence from anyone.

The killings along the border. Recent reports from international organizations remind us that along the border line between Yemen and Saudi Arabia there have been (and still are) deliberate killings of hundreds of migrants by Saudi security forces. In early October 2022, several UN special rapporteurs and working groups issued notes signaling cross-border artillery shelling and small arms fire by Saudi security forces. The toll was 430 dead and 650 injured migrants, including refugees and asylum seekers, in Sa'dah governorate, Yemen, and Jizan province, Saudi Arabia.

In the sights of snipers. Migrants who manage to cross the Gulf of Aden and attempt to cross the Yemeni-Saudi border are mainly from Ethiopia and are systematically targeted by Saudi security officials. A new report from the organization Mixed Migration Center (MMC), an international network that carries out research and analysis on migration, shows that the situation is increasingly critical.

The risks of the "Eastern Route". In mid-2023, more than 77,000 migrants crossed the Gulf of Aden to Yemen, surpassing last year's figures and approaching pre-pandemic levels. With the increase in arrivals, so do the dangers associated with the "Eastern Route", marked by violations and abuses of all sorts, torture and trafficking in human beings.

Travel. Most of the people on the move arriving in Yemen leave from the Horn of Africa, where a serious food crisis persists at the moment, characterized by the scarcity of food available to the population and a general increase in the prices of basic necessities. Migrants only hope to reach the very rich (and hostile) Gulf countries to find work, but they often fall into the dense network of traffickers.

The abuses. Along this route, often brutal violence and exploitation are the rule, not the exception, and perpetrators of these outright crimes against people go unpunished. Always. Today, the political and social insecurity experienced in Yemen, as well as an unspecified (but still large) number of arbitrary arrests of migrants, have left around 43,000 people stranded across the country.

Invisible people who want to go home. Yet, despite the increase in the number of migrants entering Yemen and the severity of the abuses they suffer, people on the move continue to be largely invisible," says Matt Huber, head of the Yemeni mission of theInternational Organization for Migration (IOM).To avoid inhumane treatment, voluntary humanitarian return is now the only safe route for migrants stranded in Yemen. This year, IOM has helped 5,631 people, including 5,572 Ethiopians, return home on voluntary humanitarian flights, a significant increase from previous years. The IOM centers in Sana'a, Marib and Aden are contacted daily by migrants asking for help to return home.

Return requests and responses. In June the teams

of theInternational Organization for Migration they recorded

thousands of migrants who have requested assistance for

return to their country of origin. These recordings have now been

temporarily suspended, as the number of requests far exceeds the resources currently available to organize the flights.

life saving services. The assistance provided by the organization

reaches thousands of migrants every month, offering protection and

relief to those who have survived serious abuse and violations e

spread across the country, including targeted violence at the border

northern Yemen, as recently reported by the missing

Migrant Project of the IOM. The hospitals of Sa'dah and Ma'rib also do

rely on IOM for equipment, supplies and salary support

so that we can assist migrants, host communities and

displaced. The health and protection teams also support migrants on the move through mobile clinics, to still guarantee medical care, water and basic necessities in areas otherwise difficult to reach.