ABDULRAZZQ AL-AZAZI
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| A special picture of displaced people with sailor |
My escape has taken a six-day storytelling -- between land, sea, and air.Starting from Yemen and
then passing through Djibouti, Ethiopia, and Kenya to
reach Sudan. That’s how my colleague Yehya
Al-Ahmady described his refugee story fromYemen.
He
pauses for a second. “This all happened after our great party [Islah]couldn’t
offer an Entrance Card for me to pass the Wadiyah Crossing. They didn’t show
mercy even when they saw my name as wanted to Al-Houthi Militias, “ said
Al-Ahmady.
Escaping
for their lives from airstrikes and civil war, Yemenis have forcibly migratedacross
the sea towards Africa into the very countries refugees used to flee. Until
recently, refugees from Horn of Africa crossed into Yemen on the journey to
enter Saudi Arabia or to apply for asylum in refugee camps in Yemen.
Refugees
choose the sea when air travel is very expensive or when flights aren’t
available during times when war blazes.
Al-Ahmady
used to work as a linguistic editor in Suhail Channel, which belongs to the Islah
Party but now he is just a "displaced Yemeni" in Sudan, like many
others in the few countries that accept Yemeni refugees.
Ansar Allah Group broke into Siraj Organization for
Development in Sana'a claiming that it is a hail of promiscuity.
Dr. Fawzi
Al-Shamy, the director of the organization felts cared for his life so he took
refuge in Sudan. Also, the director of “Sons of Migrants" Mr. Khaled Shanon
is one of those forcibly displaced to Sudan due to the airstrikes of Arabian Coalitions against
several
targets in Yemen.
“I
moved to Hodieda coming from Sana'a,” Shanon said to Al-Arabi. "Then I went to Mocha Port, and I asked the workers
there, ‘Where does the first trip go?’ They told me it will go to Somaliland,
so I boarded and found myself in Somaliland. I wasn’t planning to go to any
specific country, I just wanted to get out of Yemen," he added.
The last moments in your country
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| A special photo for Mokha port |
After a tiring trip from Al-Hodaidah we found
ourselves in Mocha Port. There were five wooden cattle boats docked.
One of them was unloading its livestock payload, another was at anchor, and the
rest were taking in goods from the trucks surrounded by passengers awaiting to board
in it, wondering and whispering if there is still a place to sit or if they might
face the troubles of the unknown.
At
06:00 P.M., I was taking photos of the port which might be the last before it
gets bombarded by the war, I thought, or before I
drown while trying to search for a better life far away from the conflicts, or even
might be the last moments in my country, Yemen.
An
old woman sitting on the other side of the place where I was sitting to take photos,
screamed that I’m photographing her. People gathered and started condemning
this dastardly and cowardly act.
"This
woman is like your Mother, why are you taking photos of her?” people shouted.
“Format his memory card and break the phone. This guy is shameless. What a
great indignation", they said. I was
just holding a phone not an RPG or gun, I thought. If that exasperation was
condemning the war, the fighting might have stopped.
They ships will sail. Only Luck chooses for
you which ship to board and each trip varies from ship to ship. Luck controls
not choice, in Mocha Port they take the travel fare and your passport and they board you into a ship of their choice, the passport remains
hidden from you until you get out from Djibouti Port.
Forced Migration Trip
Al-Arabi
was on one of the refugee trips. This boat was used to deliver goods not for human
travel and it was called Al-wahheeb.
There were 46 refugees including women, children, and old people in a trip that
lasted 24 ½ hours from Mocha Port to Djibouti Port due to the rough wind in the
night.
Sailing
was against the current – we were extremely scared and surrounded by wind and
cold at night and the warm sun in the noon, with no suitable place to sit or to
sleep. In addition, the boat was full of onion packs. We had no choice but to
board the full boat of onion and to face the risk of the sea waves. We accepted
this and used the onion packs to sleep and sit. But there was no chance for
hope or rest, and the boat crew worried about the rough wind.
The sailors who lead the boat were very nice-hearted and easy-going, as
if you know them for a long time. I wished they were the leaders of our country
– they took the risk and quietly sailed against the current. They got really
tired and suffered for our comfort and could smartly shuffle off the warships that stop all boats for inspection.
They were generous in cooking food and sharing it with us. We spent over a day
together fighting against the images of death we saw with every huge current
and rough wind in our way, and with every scape we had with the warships in the
regional water.
Thursday at 08:30 P.M. we could see the lights shining across Djibouti’s
Coast. We then decided that we no longer needed the life jackets we brought as
precaution. I was together with Abdull Nasser Al-Raifi, my college who joined
this trip to meet his wife who is staying in America. We started planning how
we were going to spend the first night in Djibouti – buying a SIM Card for calls,
renting a cheap room without A/C, taking a shower, having a dinner in the
closest restaurant because we were starving, going to the barber shop,
searching for internet cafes, hanging around the streets to see people's faces
that we missed to find in Yemen due to the war. Abdullnasser Al-Raifi was sad
that night because he didn’t know the match result of his favorite team,
Barcelona. But all that was gone with the wind since we departed at the port.
We thought that our trip had ended as we reached the city but it didn’t
happen. It ended when they put us at the port camp under tight security and
hosting mosquitoes at night and flies during the day. Whoever wants to apply
for asylum in Djibouti should not depart at the port but to the camp that is a
two hours farther by boat. Even those who just wanted to transit got caught in
the refugee camp until they could find a Djiboutian citizen to guarantee them
so they can leave the Camp – with a condition of not staying in Djibouti, even
if they have their papers ready.
In the detention camp
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| A special photo for refugees |
We arrived to the migration
office after the bus picked us up from the ship’s marina.
Before coming out, a blond girl with her hair on her shoulders shouted
into a loudspeaker like the cry of a child: "Americans and those with
American passports follow me.” The rest can
go to hell simply because their countries don’t care for its citizens.”
They took us all -- both legal
and illegal passengers – to the detention hanger with our passports still on
the boat. They were kind enough to give us food and water but the guard’s smile
wasn’t enough to stop our various problems. Everybody had a visa to other
countries but they didn’t deal with this situation well. They made it mandatory
– a -made up- law to bring Djiboutian citizens as a condition to release your
passport. This was terrible for a lot of people, especially because we arrived
on a Thursday night and we had to be detained until Saturday morning to try to
get a Djiboutian citizen to allow us to leave. We weren’t given access to
communication either free or paid.
They detained us in separate hangers for men and women, and we couldn’t see
each other through a big white flag for UNHCR. Nothing stopped the screaming of
children.
The hanger was full of Yemenis.
A lot of them had been detained for over a month – many because of
nonguaranteed availability and others with incomplete papers. No one could
leave because of the tight security and the absence of one’s passport. People
could object, but then you would be returned to your country or get reported.
Writer and Journalist Bashir
Othman said to Al-Arabi, “There is
someone who presents himself as the Consul of the Embassy of Yemen in Djibouti,
and he tends to blackmail Yemenis in the detention camp. With the arrival of
every boat he runs to the port screaming: ‘Don’t give money to anybody!’ but then
he takes passports, and after he gets the visa for them he starts to bargain
passport for money."
He adds: "One of the
bearded guys didn’t like this behaviour, so he complained and found himself called
a terrorist by the Consul. He was held for four days and released only after he
apologized to the Consul.”
After the violations against the Consul became public, he was relieved of his position.
After the violations against the Consul became public, he was relieved of his position.
One of the former Djiboutian
security guards who guarded the camp confirmed to Al-Arabi that the Yemeni Embassy was not present at the Detention
Camp, nor were they present when Al-Arabi
visited. “I haven't seen anybody from the embassy, and most of the people
who got the guarantee were because of connections or by paying bribes to powerful
people. The only exception was a charity foundation that guarantees Yemenis for
charity.”
After the Detention
The Yemenis whom left the detention
camp have faced problems of sky-high cost of living and lack of affording
housing options. They run away from the airstrikes and the civil war in Yemen to face two
options: to challenge and face the obstacles, or go back to Yemen. They find themselves between a rock and a hard place.
Facing the obstacles means to
find an apartment with over $1000 monthly rent plus an outrageous electricity
bill that is more than rent, or to find cheap rooms with walls made of cheap
materials in apartments shared with people from different nationalities. These
rooms have only one fan, an insufficient utility with so many residents.
The stories of those who
runaway from death in Yemen increase every day and every individual displaced
person has battled for survival away from airstrikes and the actions of Ansar
Allah group. Not only that, but – once refugees – they have to re-start a cycle
of suffering that’s at least equal to what they have been previously suffering
in Yemen.
..
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