Natural Disasters Increase Displacement Rates to 34% in Yemen

Aid worker helps build camps for the displaced in Marib, Yemen (United Nations)
Aid worker helps build camps for the displaced in Marib, Yemen (United Nations)
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Natural Disasters Increase Displacement Rates to 34% in Yemen

Aid worker helps build camps for the displaced in Marib, Yemen (United Nations)
Aid worker helps build camps for the displaced in Marib, Yemen (United Nations)

A majority of Yemen's internally displaced wish to return to their areas of origin, contrary to previous data from last year's beginning, according to recent data by the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA).

According to data in the second half of 2022, 41 percent of the families interviewed planned to remain in their current displacement sites despite widespread concerns about a lack of essential services, while 28 percent had yet to decide.

According to the data, plans to stay in the sites are often linked to security concerns, less than third of the families reported plans to return (31 percent), compared to seven percent in previous data.

-Livelihood concerns

Marib, Hodeidah, and Taiz recorded the highest levels of new displacement, showing that around 41 percent of all respondent households planned to stay in their current locations at the assessment time.

The families most commonly cited insecurity in places of origin (42 percent), followed by concerns about livelihood opportunities (35 percent).

As a secondary reason for staying, the questionnaire revealed that livelihood concerns ranked highest on the list (48 percent), followed by worries about shelter in places of origin (11 percent) and security concerns (11 percent).

In response to a request to identify three potential risks while staying in displacement sites, almost all households cited a lack of essential services, such as food, health, water, and education (98 percent).

About 15 percent cited insecurity as a risk in their current locations. Only 4 percent reported a risk of hostility from host communities outside the IDP sites.

The list of highest priority needs expected during the extended stay in the current IDP sites was mainly identified as food (95 percent), water (60 percent), shelter (57 percent), and health care (53 percent).

In addition, 12 percent of families indicated the need for security in IDP sites. More than two-thirds of respondents who intend to stay reported having plans to make a living in their current displacement sites (68 percent) in agriculture, construction, and other daily work activities.

- Disasters increased displacement

According to another UNFPA report, the six months truce led to a decrease fighting, which led to an 18 percent drop in the displacement rate over the past year, but warns that natural disasters, such as severe seasonal floods and drought, disrupted livelihoods, rescue missions, and services.

According to the UN response mechanism led by the Population Fund, 447,000 individuals were assisted during 2022. Among the newly displaced, 62 percent were displaced due to the conflict, while 38 percent were displaced due to heavy rains and floods.

In turn, IOM's Displacement Tracking Matrix assessed current intentions for the return of IDPs in 20 IDP sites in Aden.

New displacements to and within Aden were relatively uncommon in 2022, constituting two percent of all registered new removals.

Most families arrived from Hodeidah (75 percent), and 19 percent arrived from Taiz, which indicates that most migrated families from the west coast came to Aden.



A Bitter Return for Iraqis Kicked Out of Europe

Mohammed Jalal: 'If I could return to Europe I would'. Shwan MOHAMMED / AFP
Mohammed Jalal: 'If I could return to Europe I would'. Shwan MOHAMMED / AFP
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A Bitter Return for Iraqis Kicked Out of Europe

Mohammed Jalal: 'If I could return to Europe I would'. Shwan MOHAMMED / AFP
Mohammed Jalal: 'If I could return to Europe I would'. Shwan MOHAMMED / AFP

Iraqi Mohammed Jalal lost 10 years of his life seeking asylum in Germany, without success. Instead of being granted refuge, he was sent back to the land he had fled.

He now faces the same challenges that drove him to leave the northern Kurdistan region of Iraq. More than a year has passed, and he is still without a job.

Jalal is just one of thousands of Iraqis and migrants from many other countries who have been forced out of Europe as it tightens its migration policies, driven by the rise of the extreme right.

European states are now working closely with Iraq to support returns by funding programs primarily aimed at tackling unemployment.

In the town of Ranya in autonomous Kurdistan, Jalal moved back in with his elderly father to a cramped two-room apartment where they sleep on mattresses on a cold concrete floor.

"If I could return to Europe I would," 39-year-old Jalal told AFP.

He still dreams of a day when German authorities grant him asylum.

"I could become legal and work in a Kurdish restaurant," he said.

"Here I don't have a job."

In 2015, Jalal undertook the perilous journey across the Mediterranean from the Turkish city of Izmir to Greece.

He went to North Macedonia, Serbia and Croatia before finally reaching Germany. There, he settled in a center for asylum seekers and received 300 euros ($385) a month.

Despite restrictions on asylum seekers getting jobs, Jalal travelled to cities including Nuremberg and Munich where he worked illegally and had to be careful not to be caught.

'Path of death'

Jalal's asylum requests were denied twice and Germany expelled him in January last year.

Back home, following a failed attempt to open a bakery, he worked for two months at a falafel kiosk earning $7 a day.

Unemployed again, he now receives $150 from his family abroad.

"I live on this meagre amount," he said.

In the last quarter of 2024, around 125,000 non-Europeans were ordered to leave a country in the European Union, 16 percent more than during the same period in 2023.

"As a matter of principle, Germany repatriates people who are required to leave the country," the German embassy in Baghdad told AFP.

It said Germany "has given protection and shelter to millions of people who have fled war and violence in their home countries", including many Iraqis, mostly from the north.

But the embassy warned that "there are no prospects of residence for people who enter Germany irregularly in the hope of a better life and who have no need for protection".

Despite presenting itself as an oasis of stability in turbulent Iraq, Kurdistan is grappling with economic challenges that push its young people to seek opportunities elsewhere.

Many have lost their lives while trying to reach Europe.

Hardi Ahmed left Ranya, east of the Kurdistan capital Arbil, in 2021.

He called his journey to the United Kingdom the "path of death" after losing three friends to drowning, one in the Channel between France and Britain.

Upon arrival, Ahmed quickly realized he was not welcome. He was turned back to France, where the Iraqi embassy helped him return home.

Back in Kurdistan, the 39-year-old is now unemployed, and believes the authorities should provide jobs.

"If not, youth will be forced... to go to Europe," he said.

'Stay in Iraq'

After decades marred by conflict, including a US-led invasion followed by insurgencies and the rise of ISIS group, Iraq has now regained some stability.

The German government-linked development agency GIZ supports centers in Arbil and Baghdad that provide returnees with counselling and help in job searches, training and providing financial aid for small businesses.

Funded by Germany, Switzerland and the EU, the centers assisted 350 people between June 2023 and August 2024.

The EU ambassador to Iraq, Thomas Seiler, told AFP that "some member states have agreed on bilateral return and readmission agreements with Iraq", and the EU is finalizing a similar deal.

The capacity of many European cities and villages "to receive and integrate" migrants "has long been reached", Seiler warned.

"Irregular migration should now clearly be prevented."

Seiler said the EU funds programs to assist Iraq in welcoming back returnees. It also provides tens of millions of euros to support initiatives aimed at helping "Iraqis stay in Iraq".

Indebted migrants

With funding from Denmark and Finland, the Kurdish Rwanga Foundation launched a program to reintegrate returnees.

It has so far trained 120 people on starting small businesses and provided grants of up to $5,600 to 15 of them.

Kamiran Shivan, head of the foundation's programs, said beneficiaries' sectors include construction, carpentry, mobile and electronics repair, restaurants and beauty salons.

Many Iraqis return home burdened with debt from the cost of their journey to Europe.

"They come back without having a source of income or assets that would allow them to repay their debts," Shivan said.

Mohammed Ismail, 29, left for Germany in 2016, hoping for a better life and a European passport.

But more than five years later, nothing has changed for him.

Germany rejected his asylum requests three times on the basis that Arbil is considered safe.

Back home in Kurdistan, he received a grant from Rwanga to become a partner in a mechanic's workshop, which provides him with $550 a month -- enough to support his wife and three-year-old child.

"I no longer consider emigrating," Ismail said. "If I return to Europe, it will be as a tourist."