There is growing concern and fear at IOM over the fate of many
thousands of Ethiopian migrants stranded for several months in
northern Yemen in desperate conditions as funds run out to assist
the most vulnerable among them.

Since November 2010, IOM has been providing critical
humanitarian assistance including shelter, health care and return
and reintegration assistance to thousands of migrants stranded in
Yemen who want to return home, with the Organization so far having
provided 6,169 Ethiopian migrants with return and reintegration
assistance.

IOM operations to assist more migrants would have run out but
for some emergency stop-gap funding from Saudia Arabia and Japan
which will allow the Organization to help a group to return home to
Ethiopia soon.

IOM is urgently appealing to donors to fund an appeal of USD 2.6
million. The funds would allow it to assist 6,000 Ethiopian
migrants, many of them unaccompanied minors and women in a highly
vulnerable situation from a horrific ordeal that shows no sign of
ending without humanitarian intervention.

Nearly 18,300 Ethiopian migrants have been registered in the
northern town of Haradh on the border with Saudia Arabia in the
past 12 months, many of them migrants returned from Saudia Arabia
due to their irregular status.

In addition, 2011 has seen a dramatic increase in the number of
Ethiopians arriving in Yemen from the Horn of Africa – up
from 34,422 in 2010 to more than 65,000 so far this year. It is
likely that about 100,000 Ethiopians and Somalis will have crossed
the sea into Yemen by the end of 2011, with many having been driven
by the drought and famine that struck the Horn of Africa this
year.

In Haradh, the vast majority of the migrants are living in open,
unprotected spaces in the urban centre without access to food,
water, sanitation, shelter or means to earn money. The long period
of instability in Yemen which has had a great impact on the
population at large, has further marginalized destitute migrants,
made further vulnerable by allegations that they are being
recruited by opposing factions to fight.

An IOM departure centre for migrants in Haradh with a maximum
capacity of 150 is now hosting 350 migrants, the majority of them
unaccompanied minors and medical cases.

Having left their poverty-stricken lives in Ethiopia in search
of employment in the Gulf and beyond, Ethiopian migrants embark on
a life-threatening journey across the Horn of Africa, through the
Gulf of Aden and through conflict-ridden Yemen by using smuggling
networks.

Those lucky enough to survive this long, dangerous journey
either find themselves stranded at the Saudi border unable to
progress further or returned from the Gulf country after having
been detained there as irregular migrants and are invariably
assaulted by smugglers and traffickers. Women and unaccompanied
minors are the most vulnerable as they are often kidnapped,
exploited and assaulted by smugglers.

Their exhausting ordeal and that of all the migrants in general
means many migrants are suffering from illnesses including
diarrheal diseases, malaria, respiratory tract infections, snake
bites from sleeping in the open, or are suffering from broken
limbs, gunshot wounds and other signs of mistreatment from human
traffickers and smugglers. A clinic run by IOM in conjunction with
the Yemeni Red Crescent is currently overflowing with severe
medical cases with IOM and partners including the Charitable
Society for Social Welfare (CSSW) carrying out about 2,300 medical
consultations each month.

At least 30 migrants in Haradh have known to have died in the
past month, though that figure is likely to be higher as there is
no clear data available on the deaths that occur at the border and
other areas.

"The situation is dire to the extreme. We need to be able to
provide assistance on a much larger scale and to get those migrants
who want to return to Ethiopia back to the safety of their homes
and families now. We cannot stress enough the urgency of this
appeal to donors," says Nicoletta Giordano, IOM Chief of Mission in
Yemen.

IOM staff in Yemen say at least 1,000 migrants have been ready
to travel immediately for some time and at least another 3,000 keep
gathering in front of the IOM centre in Haradh for help, but that
the lack of funds has left the Organization hamstrung in the face
of such suffering.

Operations to help most of the 1,000 travel-ready migrants
return to Ethiopia are due to resume in the coming days. Among the
275 migrants about to leave Haradh are 19 unaccompanied minors as
well as eight migrants being given IOM medical escort following the
physical torture they endured at the hands of human smugglers.

A further 550 migrants will leave Haradh in the next couple of
weeks after which evacuation funds run out.

It will mean that without a speedy response to IOM's appeal of
USD 2.6 million, many thousands of migrants will be left at a great
and unacceptable danger.

For further information, please contact:

Brian Wittbold

IOM Yemen

Tel: + 967 736708812

E-mail: "mailto:bwittbold@iom.int">bwittbold@iom.int

or

Lilian Ambuso

E-mail: "mailto:lambuso@iom.int">lambuso@iom.int