Migrants Detained in Yemen Are Forced To Pay for Their Freedom

The Mwatana Organisation For Human Rights Director Radhya Almutawakel denounced that over 6,000 African migrants are inside detention centers in Sanaa, the capital of Yemen, where they remain imprisoned until they can pay a bribe in exchange for their release. 

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Earlier this month, a fire at a detention center in Sanaa left 44 Ethiopians dead and 200 wounded. This event raised alarm bells about the treatment of African migrants at the hands of the "Houthis," an Islamist armed movement that controls large parts of Yemen.

Over the last year, the number of detainees has increased in the Saada's militarized zone, which is one of the main African migration routes to Saudi Arabia, although it is the scene of violent fighting and bombings.

Migrants who survive the journey are often taken in "cattle trucks" to Sanaa, and placed in detention centers, where they remain for months or years until they can scrape together US$280. This is the current price of their freedom in a bribery business that has become very lucrative.

After payment, the migrants are abandoned in desert areas close to zones controlled by the internationally recognized Yemeni government. From there, they embark on a journey without food and water until they reach a location.

After erupting in 2014, the war in Yemen became a regional conflict in March 2015 when a Saudi-led military coalition intervened in support of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi and his internationally-backed administration, which had been driven out of Sanaa by the Houthis.

As a result of this conflict, over 80 percent of the Yemeni population currently requires some form of humanitarian aid while thousands of people have been forced to flee the devastation.