Yemen Post
Saturday, October 20, 2012
About 55 Somali refugees who have no identification documents were arrested in an entrance of the port city of Aden on Saturday, security sources affirmed.
The sources said the Somali refugees who included women and children were arrested while they were coming from Shabwah governorate in which Al-Qaeda militants are active.
Foreigners including Somalis were frequently arrested while fighting to the side of Al-Qaeda in Shabwa and Abyan.
Yemeni officials including President Abdu Rabo Mansour Hadi had stated that Al-Qaeda recruits foreigners including Somalis to fight against the Yemeni army.
Media sources stated that Saudis, Somalis, Tunisians and other Africans were captured while fighting with Al-Qaeda.
While fears of joining foreigners to Al-Qaeda militants in South Yemen, Africans arrive to the provinces of Taiz, Shabwa, Hadramout, Abyan, Hajjah and Hodeida on a daily average of 200-300 people, according to security sources.
Yemen Interior Ministry had stated that Yemen is hosting about one million Africans, who fled to the country over the past few decades from horn of Africa countries, mostly from Somalia.
"Only 20% of the refugees, mostly Somalis, are usually sent to the Kharaz refuge in Lahj province, while the remaining infiltrate into Yemen cities," it added.
Meanwhile, security sources of al-Mahra governorate said they seized six Bangladeshis who illegally infiltrated to the Yemeni soil through the neighboring Oman.
Yemen's passport and immigration authority deported about 1900 foreigners, including 31 European and 18 Americans, in the period from January to June, 2012, due to illegally entry to Yemen.