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AFP: African migrants face rape, torture in Yemen's Aden: HRW

Posted by: Berhane.Habtemariam59@web.de

Date: Thursday, 19 April 2018

African migrants sit in a boat in the Yemeni port city of Aden on September 26, 2016

African migrants sit in a boat in the Yemeni port city of Aden on September 26, 2016

Yemeni government employees have abused men, women and children held in detention after they fled the Horn of Africa, Human Rights Watch said.

The watchdog said government employees "tortured, raped, and executed" migrants and asylum seekers at a detention centre in the southern port of Aden.

Migrants held at the Buraika detention facility -- in use since early 2017 -- were denied refugee protection and often deported en masse into rough seas, according to HRW.

In a statement to the group, Yemen's interior ministry said it had dismissed the detention centre's commander and had begun transferring detainees to another facility.

Many of the detainees, notably boys, were allegedly raped by guards.

"Every night, they would take one to rape them," a former detainee told HRW. "Not all of them. The small ones. The little ones. I know seven boys who were sexually assaulted... You could hear what was happening."

At least two male detainees were shot dead, according to witnesses.

The United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR) has published a parallel report corroborating the findings and calling for "unfettered access" to detainees.

In January, at least 30 migrants drowned off the coast of Aden in a ship bound for Djibouti, the UN and the International Organisation for Migration said.

"The Yemeni government bears responsibility for the deaths of deported detainees at sea," said Human Rights Watch.

The watchdog also placed blame on the United Arab Emirates, a major player in the Saudi-led coalition that militarily intervened in Yemen in March 2015 to help the government push back Huthi rebels.

Emirates-backed Security Belt forces were charged with "rounding up and transport(ing)... migrants and displaced people to the detention centre".

Yemen's interior ministry told HRW it did not control Security Belt units.

On Wednesday, Aden security chief Major General Shalal Shaya told AFP he "categorically denied" any connection between the city's security forces and abuse of African migrants.

"There are certainly criminal organisations involved in human trafficking for years who are responsible for the massive flow of refugees... This is a major challenge for us," Shaya said.

According to HRW, the remaining Buraika detainees -- some 200 people -- were taken from the facility earlier this month and packed onto two ships west of Aden.

One of the engines failed and half the group was coralled onshore, after which several people escaped and relayed the account, HRW said.

The watchdog is calling on Yemen's government to bring detention centres in line with UN standards, provide female-only guards for women's quarters, end child detentions, keep families intact, and ensure detainees are granted the right to make asylum claims or contest deportations.

Last year, more than 87,000 people arrived in Yemen from the Horn of Africa, according to UNHCR.

Yemen's government is based in Aden, having been driven out of Sanaa by Huthi rebels who overran the capital in 2014.

Nearly 10,000 people have since been killed in Yemen's conflict, which has unleashed what the UN has called the world's worst humanitarian crisis.


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