A group of 131 vulnerable, stranded Ethiopian migrants has arrived in Addis Ababa from Yemen aboard an IOM flight. Their arrival brings to 765 the number of the Ethiopian migrants who have been voluntarily repatriated since the resumption in early June of the IOM Yemen assisted voluntary return programme.

The programme was suspended in September last year when it ran out of funding. A contribution of US$260,000 from the UN Humanitarian Response Fund allowed IOM to resume flights for some 2,500 of the most vulnerable migrants. The returnees include extremely vulnerable women, men and some 290 unaccompanied minors.

Stranded migrants in Yemen usually plan to cross the border into Saudi Arabia en route to the Gulf countries to find work. But recent changes in Saudi employment legislation and the fencing of the 1,800 km border have made entry into Saudi Arabia extremely difficult.

Estimates suggest that some 84,000 Ethiopian migrants arrived in Yemen in 2012. Some 25,000 of them are now stranded in and around the border town of Haradh. Many are destitute. Others are sick or victims of abuses perpetrated by smugglers and traffickers.

The majority are now desperate to return to Ethiopia, but have no means to do so, according to IOM staff in Haradh.

In Haradh IOM is providing limited accommodation, food and medical assistance to 3,500 of the most vulnerable, with the help of in-kind contributions from WFP and UNICEF.

There is a growing need for funding for voluntary returns from Yemen, as well as in Ethiopia, where the returnees need onward transport assistance to their final destinations, and livelihood assistance.

Previous IOM assisted voluntary return programmes for Horn of Africa migrants in Yemen have been funded by the governments of the Netherlands, Switzerland, Italy and the USA.