Friday, March 25, 2011

YEMEN-SOMALIA: Deadly Red Sea migrant route now flows both ways

After years of perilous one-way trips by thousands of Somalis fleeing conflict at home, the tide has changed and they are now abandoning their once safe haven of Yemen following political unrest there.

An estimated 181,561 Somalis are refugees in Yemen, most in camps or in urban centres.

"I went to Yemen in June 2007 seeking safety and security and a chance to make a living in peace but I have now ended up returning to where I took the boat, with my hopes dashed," Zahra Ahmed told IRIN in Bosasso, three days after she returned to Somali soil.

Ahmed left Bosasso, a port city in Somalia's self-declared autonomous region of Puntland, to undertake a dangerous boat journey across the Gulf of Aden to Yemen, thinking she had left the strife-torn country for a new beginning. But she is now back in Bosasso because of the instability in Yemen [ http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportID=92269 ].

Like hundreds of other Somalis, Ahmed had hoped to eventually settle in Saudi Arabia. She said most Somalis in Yemen were either in refugee camps or doing odd jobs.

"As soon as the troubles started [in Yemen], the security forces began harassing us or arresting us," Ahmed said. "I was picked up from the street coming from work and arrested. No-one knew where I was and I could not call anyone. We came here to run away from a war and now we are caught up in someone else's war."

Ahmed said some locals had started harassing Somalis after rumours that those fighting for the government had Somalis in their ranks. Consequently, she added, many Somalis decided they could no longer remain in Yemen because if things get worse, "we have nowhere to run to, so we decided to come back. Here [in Bosasso] I have nothing but at least no one is arresting me or harassing me because I am a Somali.”

Abdulakdir Abdirahman, who was on the same boat back with Ahmed, left Bosasso in January 2009 for Yemen. "At the time, my aim was to get into Saudi Arabia but I could not cross."

Abdirahman said life in Yemen was becoming "progressively dangerous" for everyone, but more so for Somalis.

He told IRIN the journey was very dangerous and he had not imagined he would have to do it again, this time from Yemen to Somalia.

"I think we [Somalis] are the most unlucky people in the world; it seems wherever we go violence follows us," Abdirahman said.

He said he would have to decide whether to leave Bosasso for his home town of Mogadishu, the Somali capital, or stay. "I don’t know what I will do; Mogadishu is even more dangerous than when I left."

He said that many more Somalis were likely to make the return journey. "I know of a lot of people, who if they get a chance, will return," he added.

Beginning of the exodus

"We have so far registered 255 Somali returnees from Yemen," said Mohamud Jama Muse, director of the Migration Response Centre (MRC) in the regional capital, Bosasso.

MRC was created in April 2009, under the office of the Bari [Bosasso area] governor, to "register and provide counselling and assist" the migrants. "Now we have to deal with those coming back," he said.

Muse said the organization had been informed by port authorities that another boat with 220 Somali migrants was due to arrive on 25 March. "I think this is the beginning of the exodus back."

Muse said Puntland authorities had allowed the migrants in "but cannot do much more".

Muse said the biggest problem was shelter. "They are joining thousands of displaced already here and they don’t have a place to stay or even a plastic sheet.” He said most came with "the clothes on their back".

According to the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), 53,382 Somalis and Ethiopians [http://www.unhcr.org/4bbf3af49.html] crossed into Yemen from Somalia and Djibouti in 2010.

Source: IRIN.

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