Nearly 100,000 migrants fled to Yemen in 2017 despite war – IOM

Nearly 100,000 migrants fled to Yemen last year to escape poverty and violence at home, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said Tuesday. Yemen is itself gripped by war and impending famine. Some 7,000 migrants enter Yemen each month, with the total number of arrivals in 2017 reaching almost 100,000, the IOM said. Fleeing violence and poverty in the Horn of Africa, and at the mercy of smugglers, they hope to ultimately reach the more prosperous Gulf countries. Last month, Human Rights Watch released a report documenting Yemeni government employees who had “tortured, raped, and executed” migrants and asylum seekers at the Buraika migrant detention facility in the southern province of Aden, where the country’s embattled government is based, AFP reported.