SANAA, 14 January 2008 (IRIN) - Poverty-stricken African migrants - mostly from the Horn of Africa - have been streaming into Yemen for the past 16 years. Now the Yemeni government says, with its limited resources, it is no longer able to receive new arrivals.

"They [the African migrants] are a burden on the services the Yemeni government gives to its citizens... Security authorities have to intensively monitor the 2,500km coastline, and watch the country's borders to stop infiltration into neighbouring countries, where there are job opportunities. [Yemen has agreements with neighbouring countries on the mutual protection of borders]. Also, the presence of African migrants increases unemployment," Yemen's Foreign Minister Abu Bakr al-Qirbi told IRIN.

He said his country had requested in 2007 increased funding from donor countries to cope with the migrants. "By the end of 2007, some US$10 million was donated for the African refugees in Yemen," he said.

The minister would not specify the exact amount needed, but he said the funds received so far were insufficient to provide services such as health and education to all new arrivals.

An official at the Ministry of the Interior who spoke on condition of anonymity told IRIN the security authorities were worried about the prospect of African migrants and refugees, especially Somalis claiming to be of Yemeni origin, settling permanently in Yemen.

Some 70 percent of the roughly half a million Somali refugees in Yemen have not been registered at centres run by the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR). They say they are of Yemeni origin, he said.

There are seven UNHCR centres for registering African migrants - one each in the governorates of Sanaa, Aden, Taiz, Hadhramaut, Shabwa, al-Hudeidah and two in Shabwa. They are operated jointly by the government and the UNHCR. Registration at these centres is not compulsory.

According to the Interior Ministry official, the problem for Yemen is that refugees are not confined to camps and are allowed to move anywhere in the country. "This way, new arrivals are encouraged to remain in the country without being registered. Over the past 11 years the government spent 280 million riyals (around US $140,000) deporting illegal migrants," he said. He also said many Ethiopians claimed to be Somalis as they can speak Somali.

Somalis were not the only problem, he said: "Over 1,200 Eritreans have been settled in the coastal city of al-Khokhah, in the western province of al-Hudeidah for 30 years. They entered the country legally, as there was war in their country. Now there is peace but they refuse to leave."

How many African migrants?

Ahmed Hayel, an official at the Interior Ministry, told IRIN that by the end of 2007 the number of Africans (both legal and illegal migrants) in Yemen had reached about 800,000 out of a total population of 21 million. Most were Somalis. "This figure is according to data from the security authorities in the coastal areas," he said, adding that 300-500 Africans come to Yemen every day.

The UNHCR office in Yemen put the total number of African registered (legal) migrants at over 100,000, mostly from Somalia, although, Abdul-Malik Aboud, a UNHCR official, recently conceded that the number of Africans in Yemen was more than the number registered.

One fear is crime: "Some Africans in Yemeni cities have been arrested for committing crimes like robbery, prostitution, and selling alcoholic drinks. Some have been arrested while trying to smuggle illicit drugs into Saudi Arabia," Hayel said.

Coastguard patrols

He said smugglers had stopped dropping off their human cargoes near al-Mukalla owing to coastguard patrols. Instead they were using areas like Ahwar and Arqa, whilst migrants from Djibouti were arriving in the Dhubab area adjacent to the Red Sea, he said.

Hayel explained that Yemen is currently only welcoming Somalis as refugees, whilst other African nationalities are now being deported if arrested. "But some Ethiopians and Eritreans manage to infiltrate into Yemen. Even locals have been facilitating the African migrants' entry into the country," he said.

Over the past two months, he said, the security authorities had apprehended 10-20 boats attempting to smuggle people into the country.

He said coastguard patrols had forced the smugglers to offload their human cargoes before reaching the coast, and this had led to an increased number of deaths.

According to the UNHCR, in 2007 alone, 1,400 died trying to reach the country; over 28,000 Africans had arrived in Yemen.

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