Eastern Route overtakes Mediterranean for people leaving Africa
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A monthly average of 11,500 people traveling from the Horn of Africa to Yemen last year made the so-called Eastern Route the busiest maritime migration path on earth, the UN migration agency said.
Most are unaware of the security situation in Yemen where they face serious protection concerns, including active fighting, or abuses such as kidnapping, torture for ransom, exploitation and trafficking.
In Obock, Djibouti, close to 2,000 migrants arrive every day hoping to cross the Gulf of Aden to get to Saudi Arabia through Yemen. As per local authorities. Some of these Ethiopian migrants have succeeded then been deported several times. They're trying again. pic.twitter.com/ua1RGnLlFe
“While tragedies along the Mediterranean routes are well reported, our staff bear witness daily to the abuse suffered by young people from the Horn of Africa at the hands of smugglers and traffickers exploiting their hopes for a better life,” said Mohammed Abdiker, International Organization for Migration (IOM) Regional Director for the East and Horn of Africa.
After five years of conflict in Yemen, the Eastern Route has spiked as travelers appear undeterred by the Gulf’s strict immigration policies for undocumented migrants.
Data collected by IOM’s Displacement Tracking Matrix revealed that over 138,000 people crossed the Gulf of Aden to Yemen last year, as compared to the more than 110,000 migrants and refugees who crossed the Mediterranean Sea to Europe during that same period.
And this is the second year in a row that the Eastern Route reported more crossings than the Mediterranean. In 2018, roughly 150,000 people made the journey.
Those making the perilous journey – crossing deserts and territories controlled by armed groups, with little food or water – either travel in search of economic opportunities or are fleeing insecurity, human rights abuses and adverse living conditions.
Approximately 92 per cent of those who disembarked in Yemen were Ethiopian nationals, the vast majority of whom aimed to continue to Saudi Arabia.
Smugglers and traffickers also operate boats from Obock in Djibouti and Bosasso in Somalia. Last year, 38 per cent of migrants arrived from Djibouti and 62 per cent from Somalia.
The journeys from their home to Saudi Arabia can take months or even longer, depending on whether they stop to work or are detained along the way.
