Medecins Sans Frontieres damns the refugee crisis

Somali refugees on the outskirts of Aden carrying all their possessions.

The high influx of refugees and migrants poses a major challenge for Yemen. To date, the humanitarian response to those arriving at the shore as well as to the refugees already in Yemen has been far from adequate, said a new report issued by Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF), also known as Doctors Without Borders, an international humanitarian aid organization.  

“More international assistance is urgently needed. Also, the response capacity of actors assisting refugees and migrants arriving on the coast needs to be strengthened. Few actors are present and there is an urgent need for additional organizations to intervene,” said Alfonso Verdu Perez, Head of the MSF Mission. 

MSF’s June report documents the medical and humanitarian consequences of the perilous journey, across the Gulf of Aden to Yemen, in particular the abuses by the smugglers. MSF teams have treated patients for injuries from severe beatings, dehydration and respiratory problems. 

Many patients presented general body pains and headaches, physical manifestations of the psychological consequences of the extreme hardships of the journey. Many survivors have not only been through traumatic events themselves, but they have also lost loved ones from violence or drowning.

As long as conflict, poverty and drought in the Horn of Africa persist, people will continue to flee. “Refugees and migrants must be provided with alternatives to putting themselves at the hands of brutal smugglers. The international community, governments and other actors should make every effort to address the humanitarian needs of the migrants and refugees concerned,” Perez said. 

The report recommended the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to increase its presence on the coast and assume a more pro-active, stronger role in fulfilling its protection mandate. Conditions in the Ahwar Reception Center, regarding registration, shelter, food and transportation are also recommended for improvement. Also, new arrivals need to be provided with information about the options open to them in their respective language. 
Yemen is a signatory to the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees and its 1967 Protocol, the only country on the Arabian Peninsula to have acceded to these international accords. However, implementation at the national level is lacking and the Government of Yemen is urged to play a stronger role regarding its responsibilities for the protection of humanitarian assistance for refugees, asylum seekers and migrants, the report recommended.
 
The first MSF report, since the beginning of  the organization’s official work in Yemen in March, is based on medical and counseling data collected during MSF's operations based on more than 250 testimonies gathered from new arrivals. People arrive exhausted, many of them ill and emotionally shattered, the report stated.

Boats designed to carry 30 to 40 people at the most are packed with over 100 passengers, many of them stuck in small windowless storage places in the hold. People are forced to sit in the same position without moving and are, in the large majority of cases, deprived of food and water. 

From nine out of ten boats, beatings were reported, the most common implements being sticks, pipes, belt buckles and sometimes also rifle buts and knives. Women and children are not spared.

According to the report, conditions are so harsh that deaths during the trip were confirmed from one third of the boats. The main causes were severe beatings, lack of food and water and suffocation from being in the hold of the boats. Several interviewees also reported cases where the smugglers threw passengers, including young children, overboard. Also cases of suicide were reported where passengers jumped ship out of desperation and fear.

Arrival on the Yemeni shores is exceedingly hazardous, as the smugglers take extreme measures to avoid being detected by the Yemeni security forces. In almost half the interviews, passengers reported that the boats did not come close to the shore and that they were forced to disembark in deep water. If passengers are afraid and refuse to jump, they are beaten and thrown into the sea. As many people, especially those coming from the interior of Ethiopia or Somalia, cannot swim, deaths from drowning are frequent. 

The majority of boats come towards the shore at night to avoid being spotted by the Yemeni military, which further exacerbates the risk of drowning. Almost one third of the respondents reported deaths from drowning. In two cases MSF provided assistance to survivors from boats where the majority of the passengers, 100 people or more, had drowned or were missing.

Thousands of people risk their lives every year to cross the Gulf of Aden to escape conflict, violence, drought and poverty. During 2007, almost 30,000 took the dangerous voyage to seek relative safety in Yemen. Due to the escalation of the conflict in Somalia and the food crisis in parts of the Horn of Africa, more and more people will join the already large refugee and migrant population in Yemen, the report said. During the first five months of 2008 over 20,000 arrived, more than double the number of arrivals in the same period last year, according to the report.

Lacking safe and legal alternatives to leave their country, refugees and migrants have to use the services of smugglers to cross the Gulf of Aden. The boat trip is fraught with danger and the smugglers are notorious for their brutality. Fatality rates are very high; for 2007, it is estimated that at least 5 percent of those setting out on the dangerous journey did not reach the shores of Yemen alive, according to the UNHCR Incident Statistical Report, December 2007. However, the actual death toll is probably much higher; the coastline is long, and neither all the boats nor all the dead bodies are detected. 

While most attention, especially in Europe, has focused on migrants and refugees coming via the Mediterranean, the tragedy unfolding in the Gulf of Aden is largely ignored by the international community and Western media, the report said. With this report, MSF aims to raise awareness about the plight of refugees, asylum seekers and migrants arriving on the southern coast of Yemen. 

In September 2007, MSF established a project on the southern shores of Yemen to provide medical, psychological and humanitarian assistance to new arrivals. A system of focal points in strategic villages along the coast serves as an alert system, allowing MSF mobile teams to intervene rapidly once an arrival has been signaled. In addition to providing emergency assistance on the shore, MSF operates the medical facility in the newly established reception center at Ahwar. Since the beginning of the project, in September 2007, until the end of April 2008, MSF has provided assistance to over 6,000 refugees and migrants arriving on the shore of Yemen.    The report was titled: NO CHOICE: Somali and Ethiopian Refugees, Asylum Seekers and Migrants Crossing The Gulf of Aden, because the majority of those crossing were aware of the risks, but told MSF that they had no choice. For them, taking the dangerous trip does not constitute an option, but their only survival strategy to escape violence and destitution. The majority of those interviewed listed multiple reasons for leaving, with violence and insecurity being the main ones, followed by poverty and lack of work.

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