Yemen - During the month of October, IOM recorded 25,940 Yemeni returnees at the Al-Tuwal border crossing point between Yemen and Saudi Arabia. The crossing is about 10km north of Haradh in Yemen’s Hajjah governorate.

Field teams operating from IOM’s Haradh sub-office distributed water and food to 24,144 of the returnees on arrival and provided 4,508 of them with non-food items, mostly clothing and medicines. Medical assistance was provided to 1,989 individuals and serious cases diagnosed by IOM doctors were referred to public hospitals.

Transport was made available to the most vulnerable returnees, particularly women, children, medical cases and those with physical impediments. In October 304 people were provided with transport from Al-Tuwal to their communities of origin in Hudaydah and Hajjah governorates.

Interviews with the returning migrants suggested that only 29 per cent of them had been economically active in Saudi Arabia and only 24 per cent had sent remittances home to their families in Yemen.

Of those who sent remittances, the majority sent between SAR 400 - 800 (USD 107 - 213.) The data collected seems to indicate that most of the returnees were short-term migrants who had managed to remain in Saudi Arabia for less than 1 month (68 per cent), whereas 29 per cent of them had stayed between 1 to 12 months.

Some 77 per cent of the returnees reported some form of abuse in Saudi Arabia, but 68 per cent said that they planned to return shortly. 

Since 2013, IOM has recorded 580,939 Yemenis returning from Saudi Arabia through Al-Tuwal. Of these 340,711 were provided with water and food, 61,992 with non-food items and 45,562 with emergency health care.

The programme was funded by the European Commission's Humanitarian Aid and Civil Protection department (ECHO) and the UK Department for International Development (DFID).

For more information please contact

Dax Bennett Roque

IOM Yemen

Tel. +967 (1) 410-568/572

Email: droque@iom.int