Somalia: Over 250 Refugees Dropped in Yemeni Coasts This Week

allAfrica.com: Somalia: Over 250 Refugees Dropped in Yemeni Coasts This Week

14 May 2009

Sana'a — Over 250 Somali refugees arrived in Yemen this week. According to a report published by the website of the information center of the ministry of interior , issued last Tuesday, 44 Somali refugees arrived to the Yemeni coasts last Monday. The security authorities said that 27 Somali refugees including 14 women were found in Thubab coast of Taiz province after an unidentified boat had threw them miles off the Yemeni coasts and ran away.

The report said that another batch of 17 Somali refugees including 3 women and a child were thrown by another un identified boat miles off Ras Omirah coast of Aden province.

The report said that security authorities collected the exhausted refugees and delivered them to the Red Crescent center in Taiz province and to the representative of the UNHCR in Aden in preparation to transporting them to Kharaz refugees camp. Meanwhile the security authorities announced arresting three Ethiopian refugees who were found in al-Suqiah coast near Bab al-Mandab. The security authorities said they extradited the three Ethiopians to Coast Guards Police in Aden.

According to another report issued by the Ministry of interior information center issued last Monday over 100 Somali refugees arrived in the Yemeni coasts last Sunday. The report said that 59 Somali refugees including 24 women were found in Thubab coasts whereas 39 other Somali refugees including 15 women and two children were found in Radhoom coasts of Shabwa province. The authorities said that they collected the refugees and delivered them to the representatives of the UNHCR so as to be transported to Kharaz camp. However the report said that a Sudanese citizen was found among the Somali refugees and that the authorities have detained him for entering the Yemeni territories illegally.

In a related context the security authorities said that 107 other Somali refugees including 37 women and 15 children who arrived earlier in the week have arrived to Kharaz refugees camp from Shabwa and Taiz provinces last Monday.

The UNHCR estimated the number of the registered refugees in Yemen at around 150 thousand; among them were around 140 thousand Somalis. However the Yemeni government announced that the number of the Somali refugees in Yemen has reached 800,000.