Aden – Migrants are among the most vulnerable people in Yemen, a country now in its seventh year of conflict. Given the dire situation and limited support, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) partnered with the European Union’s (EU) humanitarian directorate-general to reach nearly 125,000 migrants across the country with health and protection services over the past year.

“The migrant situation in Yemen is an invisible emergency within the world’s largest humanitarian crisis,” said John McCue, IOM Yemen Deputy Chief of Mission.

“Thanks to EU humanitarian aid, we have been able to reach vulnerable migrants across the country. This support has become even more urgent over the past year, as the COVID-19 pandemic heightened the dangers faced by people on the move and those stranded in alarming conditions.”

Despite the conflict and crisis, Yemen is a major point on the migration route from the Horn of Africa to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA). In 2019, over 138,000 migrants arrived in the country and the same trend continued in 2020 until the global pandemic was announced. Movement related restrictions then led to a drastic reduction in arrivals with only 37,500 in all of 2020, and this year, the numbers are still low with 842 arrivals in April and 489 in May of this year.

Although arrival numbers are down, the risks faced by migrants across the country have increased. At least 32,000 migrants are estimated to be stranded in Yemen unable to return home or make it to their destination in KSA, living without shelter, food, water or proper access to health care.

“If I sleep on the sidewalk, they tell me to get up. We have big problems finding places to sleep or food to eat,” said Abdul, an Ethiopian migrant stranded in Aden, Yemen.

Support from EU humanitarian aid enabled IOM and partners’ teams to meet the most critical needs of migrants both arriving and stranded in Yemen. The Organization took an integrated protection and health approach, providing migrants with access to health care, including mental health, information on safe migration, individual protection support and the immediate provision of tailored emergency assistance.

The partnership meant that IOM could operate mobile medical teams which travel areas where migrants are in need of health care like the Yemeni coastline on which new arrivals land. The project also contributed to the running of IOM’s Migrant Response Point in Aden where migrants can access health and protection services, as well as key messaging on health, hygiene, rights and safe migration.

The support provided under this project also helped a small number of internally displaced persons, particularly through accessing health care.

For more information, please contact IOM Yemen:

Arabic: Mennatallah Homaid, Tel: +967739888755, Email: mhomaid@iom.int   

English: Olivia Headon, Tel: +353833022648, Email: oheadon@iom.int