Migrants passing through Yemen, often with aims to reach Saudi Arabia or other wealthy Gulf countries, have long faced arduous journeys, including the horrors of rape, extortion, and torture. Incidents in recent weeks have further underscored the dangers facing those who use the war-torn country as a transit point, after crossing the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden from the Horn of Africa.

Earlier this month, a fire tore through a detention center in the rebel-held capital, Sana’a, killing at least 44 people and injuring nearly 200 more. The blaze was reportedly set after guards trying to end a protest over poor conditions in the overcrowded facility of nearly 900 people fired tear gas into a crowded hangar. According to rights group Mwatana for Human Rights, Houthi militants in charge of the facility have attempted to extort migrants, offering release for payment.

Also in March, for the third time in six months, smugglers traveling from Djibouti threw dozens of migrants into the sea amid concerns the boat was overloaded. Approximately 80 people were forced overboard and at least 20 drowned in the March 3 incident, according to the International Organization for Migration. At least 50 migrants died in a pair of similar events last October; some migrants have reported being threatened they would be thrown overboard by smugglers seeking to extort more money once at sea.

As the Migration Information Source has examined, Yemen sits at the crux of one of the world’s busiest mixed migration routes, with linkages spanning three continents. The situation was dangerous enough, due to a sprawling civil war that has prompted increasing antagonism against migrants.

But new challenges have emerged over the last year, as the COVID-19 pandemic has dramatically slowed international movement of all kinds. More than 138,000 people were estimated to have arrived in Yemen in 2019; the number declined nearly 75 percent in 2020, on the heels of the pandemic. As the numbers have dwindled, migrants have been increasingly scapegoated as carriers of the coronavirus, and the public-health crisis has been used as a pretense to forcibly move migrants from different parts of the country. In the meantime, many migrants have been caught in the middle.

The situation presents a paradox that has come to define much international migration over the last year: even as the number of migrants has dropped significantly, the smaller numbers still traveling have often encountered greater barriers, more hardship, and more pernicious threats. The situation will likely continue, even as COVID-19 vaccines roll out in many parts of the world. It could be years before the entire planet is vaccinated against the virus, and in places like Yemen dangers are likely to persist for much longer.

Best regards,
Julian Hattem
Editor, Migration Information Source
[email protected]