Yemeni First Responders Save Migrant Lives on Northern Border

Sa’dah – It’s near dawn and Dr. Esam fixes a thin mattress on the floor, lays down and stares up at the ceiling. He takes a deep breath and when he exhales, his muscles tense up in pain. His eyes are heavy, but he stays up worrying that more patients will come through the hospital’s front door that night.  

The Yemeni emergency physician works out of a hospital on Yemen’s northern border in a small city called Munabbih. He and his small medical team receive a constant caseload of patients in need of medical care – many of them are Ethiopian migrants coming for help after weeks, if not months, of arduous travel. 

“This hospital is located along the route that migrants take to reach the border with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA). Every day, migrants come to the emergency room badly wounded and in a serious condition,” said Dr. Esam. 

“This is the only hospital in the district,” he continues, adding that each month the emergency department receives an average of 1,500 patients who come with trauma wounds and complications from infectious and chronic diseases. 

The migrants who come to receive care here have crossed on foot through deserts in the Horn of Africa, made boat trips across the Gulf of Aden and moved northward toward their destination in KSA, often in the hands of dangerous traffickers.  

Migrants are frequently exposed to an array of human rights abuses in border areas. Many of those received at Munabbih Hospital are the survivors. 

They often require emergency or long-term care after sustaining severe injuries from violent attacks or developing health problems from the exhausting journey.

“I had completely lost consciousness, but someone took me to this hospital. My condition was very bad, I was bleeding out by the time I made it,” said Ibrahim*, an Ethiopian migrant who received services at Munabbih.

“I never thought that I would live. The idea of dying never left my mind,” added another migrant, Gebre*.

Both Ibrahim and Gebre survived separate violent attacks while traveling north. After their emergency needs were met in Munabbih, they were then moved by ambulance to Sana’a where Ibrahim had an operation and Gebre received other vital care.

Many migrants who come to the hospital have become stranded in Munabbih after realizing they were unable or unwilling to make the dangerous crossing.

After months without housing, clean water or basic services, the health of the migrants often deteriorates. Diseases such as malaria, cholera, tuberculosis, hepatitis and upper respiratory tract infections are highly prevalent among migrants.

“It’s impossible for us to get medication here, and there is barely any food, water or clothing either. Many of us don’t have mattresses or blankets and it is cold outside. We have nothing to protect us from mosquitos,” said Sami*, an Ethiopian man who brought his wife Anisa* to Munabbih hospital to give birth.

Anisa and Sami have been stranded in the area since the COVID-19 pandemic began, and movement restrictions stopped their plans to move to KSA to find work. They later learned how dangerous the journey could be and decided not to continue.

For the last two years, they have been trying to earn the money they need to survive while they try to figure out their next steps.

“My life was easier before I came to Munabbih. I don’t have anything to support my child when I deliver. I would like to work but I can’t with a baby. Everything is so expensive here,” said 25-year-old Anisa.

“The doctors here [in Munabbih] consider me their sister. They help me cover my medical costs for my pregnancy from their own pocket. They have helped us with everything they can,” added Anisa.

Ayman*, a 41-year-old migrant, also came to receive support from the medical staff at Munabbih after becoming stranded. After receiving emergency support at the hospital, he moved to a warehouse near the facility where patients are kept for longer term care.

“The doctors at this hospital are very kind to us. We were not charged for anything, and they come to check on us frequently. Members of the local community also support us with basic shelter and meals,” said Ayman.

Alarmingly, medical staff frequently donate their own blood for life saving interventions due to the lack of available supplies and necessary storage and screening equipment.

Dr. Esam added that his staff often spend their personal income to buy their patients food and water so they can take their medication on a full stomach, and that members of the host community are often the ones who house or drive migrants in need to the hospital for services.

While the doctors at Munabbih make tremendous efforts to serve all those who seek care, the hospital is severely under resourced.

“The medicine we have available is not nearly enough, and we do not have sufficient space to receive the high influx of patients or proper equipment, like an X-ray machine,” said Dr. Esam.

“Due to our lack of resources, we must transfer multiple wounded patients per day to better hospitals hours away from here. Since we don’t have enough ambulances, we have to move them in exposed pickup trucks,” he added.

The International Organization for Migration (IOM), with support from the Governments of Germany and Finland, is working to ease this mounting pressure on the first responders, health facilities and local community.

IOM’s support to Munabbih Hospital allows health teams to provide 24/7 emergency medical services by contributing to incentive payments to healthcare workers, medicine, supplies, equipment, oxygen as well as emergency referrals to hospitals in further locations that can provide more comprehensive care.

Ultimately, it’s this support that allows dedicated medical staff to continue serving migrants and displaced people who have nowhere else to turn – helping people like Anisa and Sami give birth to a healthy baby or Gebre and Ibrahim survive life-threatening incidents. 

IOM and partners also provide long-term health care to migrants in need in Sana’a.

In IOM-supported accommodation, migrants in particularly vulnerable conditions are offered a safe place to stay and specialized assistance. Many are waiting to take IOM-facilitated Voluntary Humanitarian Return flights home.

There are more than 200,000 migrants in need of humanitarian assistance in Yemen. IOM estimates that at least 43,000 people on the move are stranded in dire conditions and lack access to water, food and health care.

IOM continues to call for greater contributions from donors so the Organization can better equip first responders like Dr. Esam to reach more migrants in need in Yemen.

*Names have been changed.