MMTF

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-22086231 Saudi Arabia is building a giant border fence to seal off its troubled frontier with Yemen, Saudi border authorities have told the BBC. The 1,800km (1,100-mile) fence is set to run from the Red Sea coast in the west to the edge of Oman in the east. Security has deteriorated on the Yemeni side after its long-term president stepped down in...

 From:  http://reliefweb.int/report/yemen/funding-shortfall-curtails-iom-assistance-stranded-migrants-yemen Severe funding shortages have adversely affected IOM assistance to thousands of stranded and destitute undocumented Horn of Africa migrants in northern Yemen. In January, IOM had to scale back free meals at its Migrant Response Centre (MRC) in the northern town of Haradh, from...

Translated from    http://sahafah.net/ show1022617.html  (DRC accepts no responsibility for the accuracy of the translation) The Security services has rescued 52 smuggled Ethiopians who were held by a Yemeni smuggler in Hodeidah. The security forces informed that they found Ethiopians tied with chains, with their bodies showing clearly visible signs of torture. The...

Yemen Post - 25 March 2013 (http://www.yemenpost.net/Detail123456789.aspx?ID=3&SubID=6715&MainCat=3) Recent reports on human trafficking in Yemen and illegal intrusions on Saudi Arabia territories through its southern border with Yemen is raising much concern in both Riyadh and Sana'a as the issue is fast becoming a matter of national security.  While human traffickers are banking...

  UN figures indicate a "significant increase" in people smuggling and the violence that accompanies the illicit trade.   Aden, Yemen -  Twenty-one-year-old Aisha clings to her two children as she recounts her tale of horror. Growing up in the Somali capital Mogadishu, she fell in love and bore a child out of wedlock four years ago. When her family threatened her...

International agencies have highlighted a growing humanitarian crisis in and around Haradh in northern Yemen affecting thousands of migrants. Reports of extreme torture and sexual abuse of migrants at the hands of traffickers and smugglers have increased over the past year. An increase in landmine and gunshot wounds among migrants has also been reported as they try to evade increasingly strict border controls by travelling east into regions with a history of conflict. Agencies reported registering and assisting 11,308 migrants stranded in the city under desperate conditions, by the end of 2012. 90% of these migrants were men, while the rest were women and children. It is difficult to estimate the exact number of migrants in Haradh at any particular time; however, a rough estimate in the ambit of 25,000 has been deduced by humanitarian agencies.

The development and launch of the Yemen Humanitarian Response Plan 2013 allowed MMTF Yemen member organizations responding to the needs of vulnerable migrants to take stock of achievements during 2012, and look ahead to the projected needs in 2013. This map has been developed, and portrays the projected caseload and multi-sectoral needs of migrants and asylum seekers in 2013, as well as medical and psychosocial assistance provided in 2012.

Since the start of the year Yemen has faced serious political turmoil, initially mirroring the wave of protests across the Middle East and North Africa calling for social, economic and democratic reforms in respective states. The Danish Refugee Council and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), in consultation with the Yemen MMTF, has been monitoring how the situation would impact mixed migration flows from the Horn of Africa to Yemen. Many migrants and refugees told DRC that they were aware about the civil unrest in Yemen as well as the risks involved. Despite the unstable situation, more than 43,000 refugees and migrants from the Horn of Africa arrived on Yemeni shores during the first six months of 2011. This represents twice as much in 2011 compared to the same period in 2010, when 21,592 people reached Yemen.

DRC YEMEN commissioned a study on the mixed migration, prompted by the finalization of the European Commission project that started in 2008 entitled, Support to Individuals, State and Non-State actors to manage Migration and refugees across Somalia/Yemen gap. The study is intended to gain an overall picture of the protection situation during migration from the Horn of Africa to Yemen, as well as the situation migrants faced upon arrival. This report is based on a three-week research mission to the south of Yemen by the external consultant in January 2011. It is also based on registration data of new arrivals in Yemen gathered systematically by the Danish Refugee Council, as well as DRC protection reports from interviews it conducts with new arrivals on the Red Sea coast.

UNHCR Yemen is selling photo-book on Somalis' journey to Yemen with proceeds benefiting refugees. Across the Horn of Africa, war, abuse and poverty make millions miserable and drive thousands to attempt to flee. With land borders cut off or closed, and surrounded by conflict on all sides, one of the only means of escape is by sea. This book follows the journey of desperate emigrants, or tahrib, to their embarkation points with smugglers on the coast of Somalia, on a perilous voyage across the Gulf of Aden, and onward in the search for a better life. The cost is just $50, or one million Somali shillings. With a one in twenty chance of not making it to the other side alive, it is a price they must risk their lives for. Even then, it is a journey which for many will remain unfinished.