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Ethiopians head home after Yemen migrant life becomes difficult

CA, 14 Apr 2021
When Ethiopian migrant Jamal Hussein boarded a U.N.-run repatriation flight out of Yemen, he ended a journey through the war-torn country that he had hoped would take him to a better life in wealthy Saudi Arabia.

Many more migrants are also calling it quits, reversing a longstanding and often perilous flow out of the Horn of Africa by sea and then north through Yemen into Gulf states for work.

Their hopes for better a life have been thwarted by coronavirus restrictions and the security conditions, leaving them stranded in a country where millions already live on the brink of famine. The U.N. migration agency IOM estimates more than 11,000 migrants have returned by boat in the past year, but it’s now running flights so migrants can safely return.

"I wanted to go to Saudi to work so I came to Yemen. That's when I found out there was a war in Yemen, I had not known," Hussein said before Tuesday's flight home.

With COVID-19 and security restrictions blocking routes into Gulf states, thousands of migrants, facing increased stigma due to the pandemic, have been detained and forcibly transferred back to south Yemen, where the internationally recognized government is based.

It said an initial group of 1,100 Ethiopians had been approved for "Voluntary Humanitarian Return" with Tuesday's flight, the second to be operated to take people home.

More than 32,000 migrants, mainly Ethiopians, remain stranded across Yemen in dire circumstances, the agency said.

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