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GNA Yemen: Q&A with Myra Sabongi, UNHCR protection officer in Aden, Yemen

Global Needs Assessment, 9 October 2008

What is the most difficult part of your job?

The most difficult part of the job is dealing with the new arrivals reaching the Yemeni coast on boats run by smugglers. Although many of the refugees know about the dangers they face, about the high numbers of deaths and about the abuse suffered by others at the hands of the smugglers, they still choose to make the perilous sea journey to Yemen. When I ask them why they decided to make the crossing, they reply: "I am dead either way; maybe if I survive the boat trip then I will have a one percent chance to live."

What are the main needs of the refugees arriving in Yemen?

Refugees have basic needs such as food, education, health care and livelihood opportunities. They also need legal protection to ensure that their basic human rights are honoured. For that to happen, we need to help Yemen develop national refugee legislation that will allow it to meet its obligations in refugee protection.

Are you able to fulfil these needs?

We are better today at addressing some of the most basic needs than a few years ago. The operation received extra funding last year that has allowed us to expand some programmes, such as additional reception centre in Ahwar and response to the new arrivals from the Red Sea, self reliance for refugees, and to start new projects to ensure protection of the people with special needs, especially in areas like sexual and gender-based violence. However, the needs are still great.

What can UNHCR do and what are the limitations?

UNHCR still has a long way to go. We need to continue to develop programmes to ensure that the basic needs are addressed and to work more to empower refugees. We also need to continue to enhance our partnership with the government and work to build their capacity to address the protection needs of refugees.

There are number of limitations to our work. The biggest problem is that the resources, while growing, are still not enough to address the needs on a daily basis – especially with the growing number of arrivals. Also, the refugee situation has become a protracted one, with limited resettlement opportunities and no option for local integration. Yemen faces growing needs from its own citizens as well as some serious security concerns. It needs the help of the international community if we want Yemen to continue coping with this burden and maintain its generous policy towards refugees.

How do you feel when you cannot meet all the needs?

It is very hard for me to see the difficult and harsh life that many refugees in Yemen face, especially knowing the difficulties, abuse and other forms of persecution that they faced in their home country and which forced them to risk their lives to reach Yemen. It is especially difficult to see people in limbo. They cannot go back to war-torn Somalia, but they also can't continue to live in Yemen without a future.

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Yemeni humanitarian aid group wins 2011 Nansen Refugee Award

The founder and staff of the Society for Humanitarian Solidarity (SHS), a humanitarian organization in Yemen, has won the 2011 Nansen Refugee Award for their work in aiding and rescuing refugees and migrants who make the dangerous sea journey across the Gulf of Aden from the Horn of Africa. View a slideshow of the group's life-saving work, patrolling the beaches of southern Yemen for new arrivals and providing food, shelter and medical care to those who survive the dangerous journey.

Yemeni humanitarian aid group wins 2011 Nansen Refugee Award

2011 Yemen: Risking All for a Better Future

Plagued by violence, drought and poverty, thousands of people in the Horn of Africa leave their homes out of desperation every year. Seeking safety or a better life, these civilians - mainly Somalis and Ethiopians - make the dangerous journey through Somalia to the northern port of Bossaso.

Once there, they pay up to US$150 to make the perilous trip across the Gulf of Aden on smugglers' boats. They often wait for weeks in Bossaso's safe houses or temporary homes until a sudden call prompts their departure under the veil of night, crammed into small rickety boats.

Out at sea, they are at the whim of smugglers. Some passengers get beaten, stabbed, killed and thrown overboard. Others drown before reaching the beaches of Yemen, which have become the burial ground for hundreds of innocent people who die en route.

The Yemen-based Society for Humanitarian Solidarity (SHS) has been helping these people since 1995. On September 13, 2011 UNHCR announced that the NGO had won this year's Nansen Refugee Award for its tireless efforts to assist people arriving from the Gulf of Aden and the Red Sea.

2011 Yemen: Risking All for a Better Future

The Gulf of Aden: Sharp Rise in Crossings and Deaths

The number of people arriving on the coast of Yemen after being smuggled across the treacherous Gulf of Aden from the Horn of Africa has more than doubled this year. So far this year, more than 18,000 people have arrived in Yemen across the Gulf of Aden, and nearly 400 have died attempting the journey.

This surge in arrivals is largely due to the continuing conflict in Somalia and the use of new smuggling routes from Somalia to Yemen and across the Red Sea from Djibouti. Many of the new arrivals also tell of crop losses due to drought, which forced them to leave home. This photo set focuses on those people leaving from Djibouti.

UNHCR has been calling for increased action to save lives in the Gulf of Aden and other waters. We have stepped up our work in Yemen under a US$17 million operation that includes extra staff, provision of additional shelter and assistance, and protection for refugees and internally displaced people.

Posted on 20 May 2008

The Gulf of Aden: Sharp Rise in Crossings and Deaths

Yemeni NGO wins Nansen AwardPlay video

Yemeni NGO wins Nansen Award

The Society for Humanitarian Solidarity wins the 2011 Nansen Refugee Award for helping tens of thousands of refugees and migrants who make the treacherous journey to Yemen on smugglers' boats.
Yemen: Waiting for peacePlay video

Yemen: Waiting for peace

The Yemeni government has declared the war in the north is over. But most of the roughly 280,000 people uprooted by the violence are reluctant to return home.
Yemen: Further DisplacementPlay video

Yemen: Further Displacement

In Yemen the fighting continues in the north. UNHCR reports that the numbers of families fleeing is mounting and camps for the displaced are becoming crowded.