Somali refugees in Yemen have requested to be repatriated back to their country, as violence in…
Somali refugees in Yemen have requested to be repatriated back to their country, as violence in the country worsens.
An official from the Somali embassy in Yemen confirmed that at least 700 refugees have registered in the embassy, appealing to be returned.
‘’ The number of the Somali refugees living here who want to go back home are increasing day-by-day,’’ Ahmed Sudani said during an interview with the BBC Somali Service.
Every year tens of thousands of Somalis risk their lives crossing the Gulf of Aden to reach Yemen in their search for safety and a better life. Many die atrocious deaths – beaten, thrown overboard, eaten by sharks, drowned or asphyxiated in the hold of crowded smuggler boats.
He added that the occasional glimpses of hope that two decades of violence in Somalia is coming to an end has motivated them to go back.
The Somali government now controls more than 70% of the country after al-Shabaab lost its territories to the allied AMISOM and Somali national forces.
Meanwhile, a report from the UN refugee agency indicates that the number of migrants and asylum seekers losing their lives while flowing into Yemen has increased massively.
At least 64 migrants died in the beginning of this month while their vessel sunk in the Gulf of Aden.
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