documents harms suffered by migrants, most from the Horn of Africa, who try to travel through Yemen on their way to Saudi Arabia for work. Human Rights Watch found that various Yemeni security agencies in the border town of Haradh, where dozens of camps exist, and at checkpoints, allow the human trafficking industry to flourish with little government interference.
“Traffickers are holding African migrants in ‘torture camps’ to squeeze money out of their painfully poor families,” said Eric Goldstein, deputy Middle East and North Africa director at Human Rights Watch. “When you see traffickers openly loading people into trucks in the center of Haradh, you know that the authorities are looking the other way.”
In the coming weeks Yemen’s parliament is scheduled to debate an anti-trafficking bill that could enhance the protection of migrants and make it easier to prosecute traffickers and complicit officials. The proposed law should conform to international standards by criminalizing human trafficking. The law should also increase the government’s capabilities to detect and prevent trafficking at the borders, Human Rights Watch said.
Amnesty International condemns the use of excessive force by security forces against peaceful protesters in a number of locations across the Oromia region during the last two weeks, which has resulted in the deaths and injuries of dozens of people including students and children. Many hundreds of protesters are reported to have been arbitrarily arrested, and are being detained incommunicado and without charge. Detainees are at risk of torture.
