SANAA, Yemen, April 16 (NNN-SABA) – At least 60 Ethiopian illegal migrants, including 37 women, stranded in war-torn Yemen, were detained, and they are seeking help to be repatriated, a local news website reported.
“We want to go to Saudi Arabia, looking for a living not problems,” Abdo Yassin Idris was quoted by the pro-government Almasdaronline as saying, at a police mandatory detention in Shmaytin district in Taiz.
Shmaytin is under Yemeni government control.
Idris said, they reached Yemen in March, through a smuggling boat from Djibouti, to the Yemeni south-western province of Lahj, on the Red Sea.
They then travelled on foot and were arrested upon their arrival in Shmaytin, about 20 km from the front line, where battles are raging between government troops and Houthi rebels.
Idris said, he and his group are seeking help to return safely to their homeland.
The UN International Organisation for Migration (IOM) office in Yemen, could not immediately be reached for comment.
In Jan, the Ethiopian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said, it airlifted 322 Ethiopians from Yemen, in cooperation with the IOM. In Nov, 2018, The Ethiopian authorities said, they repatriated more than 400 illegal migrants from Yemen.
African illegal migrants looking for better income chances were using Yemen as a transit point to their final destination, Saudi Arabia.
The illegal migrants reportedly face abuses by smugglers and other criminals, including arbitrary detention.– NNN-SABA