Few escape routes for refugees and migrants trapped in Yemen

LONDON, 8 April 2015 (IRIN) – As the Saudi-led aerial bombardment of Yemen intensifies and a full-scale civil war appears increasingly inevitable, there are few immediate escape routes for well over a million African migrants and refugees in the country. 

Ports are closed and air traffic is largely restricted to evacuation flights for nationals of western or Asian countries. A few hundred foreign nationals have been allowed to cross a land border into Oman.

“So far refugees have not been evacuated. Clearly it is not easy to leave Yemen for anyone other than foreign nationals [and then only] after a real coordination with the Arab coalition” that has been bombing Yemen since 26 March, said UN Refugee Agency (UNCHR) spokesperson, Mogib Abdullah.Read more