African migrants and asylum seekers in Yemen are being subjected
to physical and sexual abuse in detention, Human Rights Watch(HRW) and
the UN refugee agency UNHCR said.
HRW, in a statement,
accused Yemeni government employees of “torturing, raping and executing”
migrants and asylum seekers from the Horn of Africa in a detention
centre in the southern port city of Aden as well as forcibly deporting
them out to sea.
It said Yemen’s Interior Ministry had
responded to an HRW inquiry by saying they had dismissed the centre’s
commander and begun transferring migrants to another location.
The
group said in its statement late on Tuesday that the centre was under
Yemeni state control, but that migrants were being arrested and taken
there by forces backed by the United Arab Emirates (UAE), which is a
major component of a Saudi-led coalition that intervened in Yemen’s
civil war in 2015.
UAE officials and Yemeni officials in Aden did not immediately respond to Reuters’ requests for comment.
The
Western-backed coalition has been fighting the Houthis in a three-year
war to restore the internationally recognized government of President
Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi. His government has a presence in Aden, while
Hadi lives in Saudi Arabia.
Abuse
“Guards
at the migrant detention centre in Aden have brutally beaten men, raped
women and boys, and sent hundreds out to sea in overloaded boats,” said
Bill Frelick, refugee rights director at HRW, calling on the government
to hold those responsible to account.
HRW said the
detention centre in Aden’s Buraika area had since early 2017 held
several hundred Ethiopian, Somali and Eritrean migrants, asylum seekers
and refugees, but that only about 90 migrants remained, mostly Eritrean,
as of this month.
In a separate report on Tuesday,
UNHCR also said it has received reports of the detention, abuse and
forcible deportation of refugees, asylum seekers and migrants in Yemen,
but did not specify where this was taking place.
“Survivors
have described to UNHCR being shot at, regular beatings, rapes of
adults and children, humiliations including forced nudity, being forced
to witness summary executions, and denial of food,” it said.
It
called on “state and non-state” actors effectively controlling
detention facilities where new arrivals are being held to ensure those
being detained are treated humanely.
HRW accused the
armed Houthi movement that controls northern Yemen of arbitrarily
detaining migrants in poor conditions and failing to provide access to
asylum and protection procedures in the port city of Hodeida.
Many
migrants from desperately poor Horn of Africa countries risk the
hazardous journey through Yemen in the hope of finding work in Saudi
Arabia and other wealthy Gulf Arab states.
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