Ingrid Kircher, MSF Humanitarian Affairs Officer

“MSF is providing assistance to refugees and migrants who risk their life to find safety in Yemen. For the last years, thousands have left Somalia and Ethiopia. For instance in 2007, almost 30,000 Somalis and Ethiopians fled their country -the Somalis because of the fighting and the Ethiopians because of droughts and political persecution- to reach Yemen. What we do is we provide food, medical assistance, counselling when they arrive at the shore.

The boats they are about 8 to 10 meters, made for a maximum of 30 to 40 people, but usually it’s 100, 120 and sometimes 140 people, which are crammed. But that is not all, because the smugglers are very afraid that there are some movement, so people are beaten, often quite heavily, either with sticks or with belt buckles and also with knives. We have had a lot of patients with very deep cuts, sometimes on the head, sometimes on the arm. They are forced to jump overboard and also many time when they are afraid and don’t want to jump, the smugglers beat them and throw them into the water. So many many people die.

When we ask people whether they know about the risks, many say: “Yes, but I don’t have any choice. I cannot go back to Mogadiscio, if I go back I will be killed for sure. I know that I may die on the trip, but at least I have a chance to reach Yemen”. And many also want to reach Yemen because they leave part of their family behind because they don’t have enough money to bring them all. So they want to come to Yemen and seek work and then to be able to bring their families.”

Alfonso Verdú, MSF Head of Mission in Yemen

“El proceso de refugiados en Yemen es un proceso que no es Nuevo, lleva ocurriendo durante varios años en el país. Hay un flujo masivo de personas huyendo de los diferentes contextos que se encuentran en el cuerno de África e intentando cruzar el Golfo de Aden para Yemen. Lo que sí hemos constatado en los últimos años, sobre todo en 2007 y 2008, es un deterioro del proceso en si mismo muy vinculado al deterioro de la situación tanto en Somalia como en Etiopía. Yo creo que las cifras hablan por si mismas: sólo en 2007 cerca de 30.000 refugiados saltaron el Golfo de Aden para llegar a Yemen. Sin embargo, en los primeros cuatro meses de 2008 lo que hemos podido constatar es que las cifras se han duplicado.

De nuevo, por poner varios ejemplos, hemos tenido testimonios que reportan desde gente que es lanzada del bote porque no sigue las instrucciones de los traficantes de personas, o gente que por pedir agua o comida es golpeada con cinturones, con bastones o incluso con las culatas de los fusiles. También el viaje en si mismo: toda la pauta del viaje es una pauta de vulnerabilidad en el sentido de que por ejemplo la llegada a las costas de Yemen se suele producir durante la noche, y en ese momento los refugiados son expulsados del bote, son lanzados al mar. En ese momento ellos no pueden orientarse con lo cual mucha gente muere ahogada antes de poder alcanzar la costa.

Lo que está claro y como conclusión general es que la mayoría de ellos informa, nos han comentado, que no tiene otra opción más que abandonar sus países, sobre todo por una razón principal que es la violencia intrínseca a al que se ven sometidos.”

[Translation:] “The process of the refugees in Yemen is not new, it has been going on for several years now in that country. There is a massive flux of people escaping from the different contexts that occur in the Horn of Africa, and trying to cross the Gulf of Aden to get to Yemen. What we have ascertained in the last years, especially 2007 and 2008, is the deterioration of the process itself, which is closely related to the deterioration of the Somalian and Ethiopian situations. I think figures speak for themselves: in 2007 alone, nearly 30,000 refugees crossed the Gulf of Aden in order to reach Yemen. However, within the first four months of 2008 the figures have duplicated.

Again, just as examples, we have had witnesses reporting people being thrown out from the boat into the sea because they did not follow the instructions of the human trafficker, or people being beaten with belts, sticks or butts of guns just because they ask for water or food. Also about the trip itself: all the guidelines of the trip are about vulnerability, for instance the arrival to the coast of Yemen occurs usually at night; in that moment the refugees are ejected from the boat, just thrown out to the sea. In this situation they can't get their bearings in the sea, so many people die from drowning.

The main conclusion seems pretty clear, and has been reported by many people. They have no choice but abandoning their countries, mostly due to the intrinsic violence they are subjected to.”

Abdul Jalil, Translator for MSF and Ethiopian refugee who made the trip in 2005

“During my journey on the sea there was so many difficulties, and problems during the trip. The first problem is that we were so many people in one boat. I remember we were at that time over 120 people in a very small boat. So it was much more crowded than usual. So the first difficulty during the trip was the fact of being crowded. So our position was not suitable, it was very dangerous. And on top of this bad seating, there were beatings by stick and also they threatened us with knives like that. I remember two of us were dead when we reach this Yemeni coast.”

Transcript taken from the 'Forced Migration Online' website.