Yemen Today: Danger From All Sides Danger From All Sides ================================================================================ Heather Murdock on 04/03/2010 04:37:00 Non-Somalis flee the Horn of Africa by the tens of thousands. In Yemen, they find destitution, discrimination and violence. Burhan Wallaw Barihu was the last one off the boat. He had forgotten his only possession: a small plastic baggie that held his documents. Before he could jump overboard, shots flew from the beach. Yemeni soldiers were firing at the smugglers. The smugglers, who had ferried Barihu and 140 other refugees across the Gulf of Aden in a tiny fishing boat, were eager to get out of range, and forced passengers into the water. One terrified old lady refused to jump. Before the smugglers could throw her overboard, she was shot in the arm. Barihu yanked her into the gulf and swam, dragging her behind. Barihu made it to shore, exhausted and starving, but alive. “The woman died on land,” he said flatly. “Because there was no medicine.” Twelve other bodies washed up on shore that day. Aid workers buried them all, nameless, in one grave. Six months later, Barihu said he could not have stayed in Ethiopia. His father was Eritrean, but he grew up on the other side of the border. He was drafted into the Ethiopian army, and forced to fight and kill his own people. After his brother was killed in battle, and he was shot in the leg, Barihu was sent to prison because he refused to fight. The army prison was not far from Somalia, and Barihu’s family arranged for his escape. He begged on the streets until he made it to Bosaso, the last stop on the continent for many people fleeing the Horn of Africa. “I was desperate to escape,” he said. “I can’t imagine whether it was a few days or a very long time.” In Yemen, Barihu has found little comfort, and his few precious documents have proven worthless. He has no government identification, no money, and nowhere to turn for help. Ethiopian nationals, like Barihu, are arriving on Yemen’s shores at an ever-increasing speed. Last year, the number of people smuggled to Yemen from the Horn of Africa increased 55 percent, according to IRIN, a United Nations news service. And for the first time ever, most of the new arrivals came from Ethiopia. Yemen, already crippled by poverty, unemployment, war, and looming oil and water crises is ill-equipped to handle the influx of refugees, according to Deputy Foreign Minister Ali Muthana Hassan. But it is also the only country on the Arabian Peninsula that will take them. Hassan says there are about 700,000 African refugees in Yemen. Most, he said, are outside the care of the UNHCR. “We have problems in accommodating them, providing them the necessities of life,” Hassan said. “They are looking for work, some of them need medical care.” In previous years, Somalis have made up the majority of the people smuggled across the gulf. Somalis that survive the harrowing journey are granted automatic refugee status and carried to camps by aid workers or local authorities. Non-Somalis, however, often flee the beaches. “The government arrests Eritreans and Ethiopians on arrival,” reads a recent UNHCR report, “deports most of them, and restricts access to those detained.” Non-Somalis that are not caught disappear into Yemen. Many avoid cities for fear of detection, but others reappear later at UNHCR registration sites to apply for refugee status. There are about 171,000 refugees registered with the UNHCR in Yemen, almost all from the Horn of Africa. Somalis are given refugee cards, approved by the government. Non-Somalis that are granted refugee status are given a letter that is supposed to serve as identification. This recognition usually does protect the letter-holder from deportation, but it is not considered valid identification by most Yemeni authorities. Refugees say their lack of documentation invites regular harassment, extortion and abuse. Michael Negash fled forced military service in Eritrea about two years ago, when he was 19 years old. After swimming to shore, he fled bullets on the beach, but he did not escape authorities. He was arrested and piled in a truck with other non-Somalis. As the truck headed north, it slowed at a curve, and several of the prisoners jumped, and ran. He thinks some of the people were injured. “Everyone was running,” he said. “Trying to escape.” Negash walked to Sana’a with no food or water. He doesn’t know how long it took or how far he came. In the capital, he met Ethiopian families who took him in. Eritrea and Ethiopia may be separate countries, often engaged in armed conflict, he said, but the people are connected by language, culture, marriage, and often by blood. In Yemen, he added, they are also connected by suffering and discrimination because of their second-class refugee status. Many locals are openly hostile to black people and dislike hearing African languages in public. “People say, ‘What are you speaking? Speak Arabic!’” he said. The UNHCR gave him the letter, saying he is a refugee, but it was of little use. Not long after the letter was issued, the Yemeni police stopped him. When he refused to surrender the letter, he was arrested. After seven days with no food, he was released- without the letter. According to Human Rights Watch, this kind of abuse is commonplace in Yemen. Local police officers and soldiers stop non-Somalis and ask for identification, knowing they will have nothing the government recognizes. Usually, refugees are threatened with arrest and then released after paying a bribe to an officer. “In each case the aim appeared to be to use this as a pretext for extortion rather than arrest,” according to a recent HRW report. Yemen is the only country in the Arabian Peninsula that has signed international treaties that obligate the signatories to host refugees. According to these treaties, when people land in Yemen, they have the right to seek asylum. Those who fit the legal definition of refugee, because they have a “well-founded fear of being persecuted” in their home countries are entitled to asylum, according to the treaties. Those who fled their countries looking for jobs are not. But in Yemen, many people are deported before they get a chance to make their case. And although these deportations often are blatantly in defiance of the treaties, the Yemeni government does not deny that arresting non-Somali Africans upon arrival is state policy. State-run news regularly reports how Ethiopian “sneakers” have been caught on Yemeni shores, or how large groups of Africans were deported. Many officials view the large influx of refugees as a burden to this impoverished nation, and say expelling people they consider to be job seekers, not asylum seekers, is the government’s duty. “The majority are coming for labor, for work,” said Hassan. “Most of them are not to be considered under the asylum criteria.” Samer Haddadin, a senior protection officer at the UNHCR, said they should be screened anyway. According to international law, all people that land in Yemen should have the right to seek asylum, even if only one in a thousand turns out to fit the legal definition of refugee. At the moment, the UNHCR occasionally has access to detainees that may be seeking asylum in Yemen, but only with special permission. “Everyone seeking asylum, be it from the Horn of Africa or any other country, should, in principle, go through a refugee status determination,” he said. But even if the government intends to honor its international agreements, the mechanisms are not currently set up in Yemen, Haddadin said. “There is no law or rule making it an obligation of the soldier, or police man or border officer to respect the right of the person to seek asylum.” And, he said, between the dangerous journey and Yemen’s absent system, non-Somalis seeking refuge could face less risks fleeing to neighboring African countries than taking their chances in Yemen. “So far we cannot say it’s safe to come and seek asylum in Yemen.” According to HRW, by inaction, the UNHCR is part of the problem. The UNHCR generally favors quiet diplomacy, and is protective of its cooperative relationship with the Yemeni government. This relationship allows the UNHCR to facilitate legal status for all Somali refugees, according to HRW. “But favorable treatment of one refugee group should not come at the expense of another,” reads a HRW report. “Especially when this involves systematic refoulement [forced repatriation] and other abuses directed against the disfavored group.” The future of the refugee process means little to Africans trying to survive in Yemen. Outside the UNHCR office one February evening, a small group of women congregated in a quiet protest. They said they spent most of their time outside the building, petitioning the organization for help. As the sun went down, Sabria Nasser, a refugee from Ethiopia, sat on the sidewalk, and said she had spent her days outside the building for a year, hoping to find help. She said she the baby in her arms was sick, and needed medicine that she could not afford. She blamed the UNHCR for not helping, but also said it was the only place that might help. “I need rescue,” she said. “All the people I know are in my condition.” Other refugees say their problems in Yemen go far beyond the devastating poverty, discrimination and daily harassment. After al-Shabab, an extremist militia attempting to take over Somalia, announced its intention to re-enforce al-Qaeda in Yemen, the number of reports of violence and extortion towards Africans in Yemen soared. In her tiny Sana’a music shop, Mulumabet Addam Beyabl said her home was raided and her husband was murdered at the beginning of 2009. She talked softly because her baby, born shortly before her husband died, was sleeping. She said she had gone to the police, and to the UNHCR for help. Both offices said they could do nothing. She looked down at her daughter, Kalkidan, which means “promise,” and said now, at 25 years old, she is a widow, and makes only enough money for rent and milk. “There is no justice,” she said.