United Nations: 250,000 refugees in Yemen, 90% of them are Somalis
English - Monday 07 October 2019 الساعة 11:51 am
The number of refugees in Yemen currently registered with the organization stands at 250,000, said UNHCR spokesman Babar Baloch.
Baloch said in a press conference in Geneva on Saturday that more than 90% of the refugees in Yemen are from Somalia, who began to flow since the eighties.
A spokesman for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) revealed that increasing numbers of Somali refugees are reaching out to UNHCR, asking for help in their repatriation.
IOM spokesman Joel Melman said that the International Organization for Migration (IOM) this week helped 143 Somalis stranded in Yemen to return home.
"A total of 46 men, 41 women, 26 boys and 30 girls boarded a boat from Aden on 30 September and arrived at the port of Berbera in Somalia," he said.
The deportation was made possible by funding from the King Salman Humanitarian Relief Center and the government of Kuwait, Melman said, adding that the organization was working in partnership with UNHCR to facilitate the return of war-torn returnees from Yemen.
He pointed out that with the impact of the war on the economic and security situation in Yemen, many African migrants and refugees are finding themselves and their families without any means to help themselves and their families, forcing them to turn to humanitarian organizations for help to return to their homes.
Since the launch of the project, funded by the King Salman Center in November 2018, a spokesperson for the United Nations Agency for Migration (IOM) has indicated that 1,505 people, including 783 men and 722 women, have been assisted in returning to Somalia. Safe and dignified returns from Yemen, and contribute to the sustainable reintegration of those returnees.
