YEMEN – A campaign to register Somali refugees with the aim of creating a government database and identifying illegal African migrants is under way in Yemen, according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA).
Issam al-Mahbashi, who is in charge of refugees at the ministry’s Africa Department, told IRIN that the registration campaign would help distinguish Somali refugees from African economic migrants.
“There is mixed migration as the smuggling boats coming from Bossaso carry economic migrants as well as asylum seekers. The latter should be granted refugee status, while the former should return,” said Al-Mahbashi.
The registration process, funded by the European Union, had been agreed upon with the UN Refugee Agency UNHCR, he said.
The plan is to have six permanent registration centers around the country. The first one was opened in Sana’a in March and another opened in the port city of Aden this month.
The registration’s first phase, which may last for six months, involves Somali refugees only. The second phase, which is still under advisement, is to include non-Somali asylum seekers.
The foreign ministry official said that the turnout for the registration process was high, adding that the drive had been publicized by UNHCR in different languages via the media and posters.
He further noted that another chance would be given to those who did not register during the first phase.
Temporary campaigns would be conducted to check the identity of any refugees following the first phase. Those who refused to register would be identified while traveling from one governorate to another, according to Al-Mahbashi.
“Anyone who fails to register during that period will be arrested and deported despite being Somali,” Al-Mahbashi said. Andrew Knight, UNHCR’s external relations officer in Yemen, said such actions would contravene the 1951 Refugee Convention. Article 33 of the convention, to which Yemen is a signatory, states: “No Contracting State shall expel or return a refugee in any manner whatsoever to the frontiers of territories where his life or freedom would be threatened on account of his race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion.”
According to the UNHCR, there were 152,693 refugees assisted by the UNHCR in Yemen as of the 31st May, of whom 143,998 were Somalis, 2,919 Ethiopians, and 672 Eritreans. However, Al-Mahbashi said there were 750,000 Somali refugees and more than 300,000 African migrants (Ethiopians, Eritreans and others) in Yemen.
According to the World Refugee Survey 2009, conducted by the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants, the Yemeni government claims that there may be as many as 700,000 Somalis in the country.
In a related issue, Yemen appealed to the international community to help it address the continuous flow of Somalis to the impoverished country in a statement issued by the Ministry of Interior on Sunday.
There are about 800,000 Somali immigrants in the country, an official statement said.
With its limited resources, Yemen alone will not be able to handle the situation, said the statement.
More than 1,000 Somali immigrants, including women and children, have arrived on the coast of Thubab in Taiz province in the southwest of the country since July, said the statement.
Unrest and rising violence in Somalia has led to the increase in the number of immigrants seeking safe haven in Yemen, the statement said.

Source: Yobserver

Written By: Abdul-Aziz Oudah & Nasser Arrabyee
Article Date: Jul 27, 2009

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