LOC13:21
10:21 GMT
GENEVA, June 21 (KUNA) -- The International Organization for Migration
(IOM) resumes on Tuesday evacuation of stranded Ethiopian migrants from Yemen
as it continues providing assistance to those displaced by conflict.
More than 1,900 Ethiopian migrants stranded near Yemen's border with Saudi
Arabia in desperate conditions and unable to return home are to be helped by
IOM as it resumes a humanitarian evacuation programme out of this country.
"A first group of 275 Ethiopians, including 115 minors, 34 women, 15 cases
treated from gunshot wounds, and two cases requiring psychological assistance,
were taken from Haradh to Hodeidah on Yemen's Red Sea coast and flown to Addis
Ababa on Monday June 20 on an IOM-chartered flight," said the IOM Spokesperson
Jean-Philippe Chauzy in a press briefing.
On arrival, the returnees were taken to an IOM Transit Centre and provided
with accommodation, reintegration assistance and where necessary, medical and
psychosocial support. Unaccompanied minors will be referred to UNICEF and its
partners later today.
The remaining group of Ethiopian migrants wanting to return home will be
assisted through another six evacuations in the next two weeks.
The IOM operation to help stranded migrants in Yemen, which began last
November, has had to be put on hold a few times due either lack of funding or
the security situation in the country.
To date, IOM has assisted 3,756 Ethiopian migrants to return home from
Haradh, where the Organization has a centre providing shelter for vulnerable
migrants, many of whom are hungry, exhausted or made ill by their long trek to
the north of the country.
Yemen has long been a major transit point for irregular migration flows
from the Horn of Africa to the Gulf countries and beyond. The crisis in Yemen
has led to large numbers of Ethiopian migrants and Somali asylum-seekers
arriving on its shores as human smugglers take advantage of the political
instability in the country.
A total of 28,179 Ethiopian irregular migrants have arrived in Yemen so far
this year, in addition to 9,227 Somalis, bringing the total arrivals for the
first half of 2011 to 37,406, according to UNHCR.
Of these, around 12,000 have managed to reach Haradh, where they are
registered and given shelter and assistance by IOM and its partners. (end)
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