Somali refugees need more care

A regional conference is to be held in Sana’a to discuss refugee’s protection and international migration. The UNHCR backed regional conference is to be attended by high commissioner of the United Nations for refugees affairs and will bring together senior level government officials from Djibouti, Ethiopia, Somalia (including Somaliland and Puntland), Yemen and the Gulf Cooperation countries, as well as representatives from the African Union, the EC, UN agencies, non-governmental organizations and civil society representatives. 

The gathering seeks to create a regional mechanism and a strategy to protect refugees and mixed migration in the region. Also the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) António Guterres paid a visit to Kharaz refugees camp and al-Basatten slum in Aden to meet with Somalis and Ethiopians who arrived in Yemen after making the hazardous journey across the Gulf of Aden in search of protection or a better life. This was positive news.
The question is whether the conference will work for improving the living of the refugees and provide them with the necessary needs to survive and how particularly that the majority of the refugees live in urban areas rather than in the refugees camps.

Can the conference deal with the problem of torturing, harassing and killing the refugees in their routs to refuge? Can it protect them against the corrupted officers and soldiers in the borders of Djibouti and Saudi Arabia?

Can the conference make sure that poor refugees like Habyba Gurea and her three kids would be given enough food, blankets and mattresses to be able to survive?

What is more important is when will the international community interfere to stop long lasted civil war in Somalia?

Most of the Somali refugees in Yemen confirm that the main reason behind their migration to Yemen was for security purpose rather than economic. They also assure that they knew about the hazardous journey across the Gulf of Aden, though they accept its risks because they had no other option. The other option is to die in their beds in Somalia. 

The UNHCR admitted that more than 15, 000 refugees have arrived in Yemen since the beginning of this year only and here we ask why only 9,000 refugees live in Kharaz refugees camp? Is it because there is no enough food or because of malpractices and complications they face when they seek to the camp?

Why only women and children that cannot travel to the urban areas accept to live in the camp?

These questions are put before the conference and before the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) António Guterres who is visiting the country currently.

We published stories about the miseries of the Somali refugees in Kharaz camp and in the routes to Yemen and gave live examples in our last issue. 

We wish the officials in charge had read and took actions to reform the situations otherwise conferences or visits are in vain.

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