UN agency in Yemen worsens plight of Ethiopian refugees
By Neamin Zeleke
March 31, 2004

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The deplorable condition of the Ethiopian refugees in Yemen is caused by none other than a corrupt and inconsiderate UNHCR office in sanaa that has gone astray from its intended purpose of safeguarding the security and wellbeing of refugees.

It has subjected the refugees to such a plight for the last 13 years as to leading to their current imprisonment. As a the supreme UN organ vested with the mandate and responsibility of protecting and resettling refugees worldwide, UNHCR and its branch office in Senna have failed in taking all the appropriate measures of facilitating their resettlement to a third country or an integration and permanent status in Yemen.

The recent incarceration of the naval refugees had drawn to a stalemate. The Yemeni authorities are expecting the branch UNHCR office in Senna to formally request for the release of the incarcerated refugees it had ordered to be imprisoned on the allegation that they are "terrorists and murders threatening the life of the branch office's representative"- So far however it has not materialized.

The UNHCR office had earlier charged, in writing, to the Yemen Foreign Ministry and the Yemeni Political Police Authority, the naval refugees' contempt for the hospitality the Yemen government had so far availed, and for spreading defamatory campaign against religious, cultural and traditional values cherished and respected by the Yemeni nation. It seem that the protection branch of the UNHCR office, mired deeply in the persecution practices of the unfortunate naval refugees, seem to be taking a long time in agonizing over its dubiously conflicting involvement, again at the expense of the suffering prisoners and their families who are warily anticipating the release of their loved ones.