SANA’A — The Yemeni Interior Ministry has highlighted humanitarian abuses that African refugees undergo at various smuggling points along the Saudi-Yemeni border.
At these border crossings, particularly in Harad city, the African stowaways to Saudi Arabia have become easy prey for human trafficking gangs.
The gangs torture the refugees and make them call their relatives living in Saudi Arabia or in any other country to send them money.
The Ministry of Interior said last Thursday that a convoy of eight armed vehicles had stormed smugglers’ courtyards in the Harad directorate.
The raid resulted in the freeing of 89 African hostages, among whom there were 76 Somalis, a Nigerian man, six Nigerian women and six Sudanese. Five smugglers were captured in the security operation.
The Interior Ministry further added on its website that the investigation led to a deeper understanding of the refugees’ suffering and more specifically how they were subject to extortion and blackmail by smugglers who forced them to call their relatives to send money.
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