Yemen to End Automatic Refugee Status for Somalis
Yemen is the only nation that signed onto the UN convention granting refugees status to those fleeing war. Since then the lack of international support, and corruption and inefficiency within the UN offices, meant that Somalis in Yemen are trapped in a life of poverty and hunger with few options but to illegally migrate to Saudi Arabia and beyond. The refugees strain the government’s meager resources and many have no access to education, medical services and jobs, but then neither do many Yemenis.
IRIN: SANAA, 9 August 2010 (IRIN) – Straining to cope with the number of Somalis arriving by boat, Yemen is seeking to end the prima facie refugee status (automatic asylum) it has been giving them for the past 20 years. The government says some are economic migrants and should not be granted automatic refugee status, while others are militants seeking to join al-Qaeda groups to destabilize the country.
“Not all Somalis are fleeing conflict. Many are immigrants who come from safe regions such as Bosasso [port in the Puntland region of northern Somalia] in search of better economic opportunities,” Essam al-Mahbashi, a subcommittee member of the National Committee for Refugee Affairs (NCRA), told IRIN.
He said the emergence of extremist groups in Somalia, such as al-Shabab, is one of the reasons why Yemen wants to scrap the prima facie refugee status policy.
“Members of these groups want to enter Yemen to help the al-Qaeda organization in its plots that target national security and stability,” al-Mahbashi said.
The NCRA, which works with the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) and the International Organization for Migration (IOM), is mandated to implement the new policy when it comes into effect.
