UNHCR seeks $3 million to respond to displacement in Yemen
Briefing Notes, 22 April 2008
This is a summary of what was said by UNHCR spokesperson Ron Redmond – to whom quoted text may be attributed – at the press briefing, on 22 April 2008, at the Palais des Nations in Geneva.
The UN refugee agency is launching an appeal for nearly US$3 million to provide protection and assistance to an estimated 77,000 people affected by a local conflict in northern Yemen.
UNHCR said funds raised in the supplementary appeal would ensure enhanced support for the internally displaced persons (IDPs) and returnees affected by a conflict which erupted in 2004 between a rebel group and government forces in the Sa'adah Governorate.
About half of the displaced people returned to their home villages after the signature of a ceasefire in August 2007. But new displacements took place due to renewed fighting. Despite a peace agreement signed in January 2008, the situation remains volatile. New IDPs continue to arrive in Sa'adah city, including more than 200 families for the past week alone.
Both returnees and IDPs are in need of assistance and protection. In 2008, UNHCR plans to improve their living conditions with the distribution of non-food items, such as blankets, stoves and mattresses, and with a special focus on shelter issues though the provision of tents and reconstruction material and assistance to the construction of mud shelter for 400 vulnerable returnees. This assistance will also help relieve the burden on local communities, which host 90 percent of the IDP population. In the three existing IDP camps in and outside Sa'adah city, UNHCR will continue to provide its expertise in camp management and planning.
In addition, UNHCR will seek to promote the self-sufficiency of IDPs and returnees through training programmes. UNHCR also plans to raise awareness on IDP rights and address the specific problems faced by landless IDPs. The provision of social counselling services and the implementation of projects to prevent sexual-based violence will also contribute to answering the protection challenges identified last year.
UNHCR programmes are funded through voluntary contributions.
The internally displaced seek safety in other parts of their country, where they need help.
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Gulf of Aden People-Smuggling: International Help Needed
An alarming number of people are dying trying to reach Yemen aboard smugglers' boats crossing the Gulf of Aden from Somalia. Over a three-week period in late 2005, at least 150 people perished while making the journey. These deaths are frequently the result of overcrowded boats capsizing or breaking down and going adrift without food or water. Those who survive the voyage to Yemen often give brutal accounts of smugglers beating passengers or forcing them overboard while still far off shore – in some instances with their hands and feet bound.
In response, UNHCR has issued an urgent appeal for action to stem the flow of desperate Ethiopian and Somali refugees and migrants falling prey to ruthless smugglers in a bid to reach Yemen and beyond. The refugee agency has also been working with the authorities in Puntland, in north-eastern Somalia, on ways to inform people about the dangers of using smugglers to cross the Gulf of Aden. This includes production of videos and radio programmes to raise awareness among Somalis and Ethiopians of the risks involved in such crossings.
Gulf of Aden People-Smuggling: International Help Needed
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
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
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 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 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.
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