Press. voanews.com
The International
Organization for Migration warns a migration refugee crisis unfolding in Yemen
and Djibouti is having a serious impact across the Horn of Africa. The
International Organization for Migration said about 10,000 migrants, mostly
from Ethiopia, make the long, dangerous trek across the blistering hot desert
to Djibouti every month. From there they transit through war-torn Yemen to
Saudi Arabia in search of work.
The IOM said
most of the migrants are young men. About 30 percent are unaccompanied minors,
some as young as 11. It said very few women are to be seen. Speaking by
telephone from Obock, Djibouti, IOM Director for East and Horn of Africa,
Jeffrey Labovitz, said the women are largely invisible because smugglers take
them to Saudi Arabia by car to work as domestic servants.
“It is much more
clandestine and organized," he said. "And so we are not seeing them.
But, it also means in terms of protection, we do not know what is going on at
all.” Labovitz said
Yemen recently began deporting Ethiopian migrants to Djibouti. He said it
appears thousands are likely to be deported in the near future and called such
a prospect "very worrying" for a "small country like
Djibouti."
“What we are
seeing right now, too, in Yemen is that in the government areas, they are
asking us urgently to provide food and services to over 4,000 individuals in
detention," he said. "And we also hear in the coalition areas that
there are several thousand who may be deported soon. We do not know.”
Labovitz said
the IOM will not be able to handle such a huge surge of migrants. He said the
Migration Response Center, the transit center run by the IOM and the Ministry
of the Interior in Obock can take care of about 100 migrants at one time.
Currently, the center is hosting between 600 and 700 stranded Ethiopian
migrants, he said.
Djibouti could
soon be facing a massive surge of migrants, creating a humanitarian crisis,
added Labovitz. To make matters worse, he said the IOM’s voluntary return
program is largely on hold because most of the Ethiopian migrants have no
documents and the IOM is strapped for cash.