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March 16, 2021
Dozens of migrants were burned to death when Houthi security forces fired “unidentified projectiles” at a crowded detention center in the Yemeni capital of Sanaa earlier this month, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said on March 16.
According to the New York-based human rights group, the mostly Ethiopian detainees were protesting their living conditions on March 7 when Houthi guards surrounded hundreds of them, locked them in a hangar and told them to say “his last prayers” before firing two projectiles. on installation.
“The migrants said that the first projectile produced a lot of smoke and made their eyes cry and burn. The second, which the migrants called a ‘bomb’, exploded loudly and started a fire, “HRW said in a statement.
“People were roasted alive,” one migrant told the group. “I had to step on their corpses to escape.”
Based on eyewitness accounts and an analysis of the video images, HRW said it appeared that the guards had used smoke grenades, tear gas canisters or stun grenades on the prisoners. Two videos showed “dozens of charred corpses … lying in positions suggesting they were trying to flee, but were overcome by smoke and fire.”
The International Organization for Migration (IOM) estimated that more than 170 people were injured in the fire, with at least 90 in serious condition. The United Nations migration agency called on the Houthis to allow humanitarian workers and medical personnel access to hospitals that treat the wounded.
The Houthis blamed the UN, which the group’s Interior Ministry said was “wholly responsible” for “its inability to play its role in providing shelters … for the collection and accommodation of illegal immigrants.” In a statement provided to HRW, Houthi spokesman Mohammed Abdulsalam said the fire should not be “politicized”.
“The incident that took place was a normal result of similar incidents around the world,” Abdulsalam said, adding that international organizations must “improve conditions in boarding centers.”
Each year, some 100,000 immigrants from the Horn of Africa arrive in Yemen by boat, hoping to find employment in the wealthy Gulf countries. The migration agency estimates that at least 6,000 migrants are trapped in detention centers across Yemen, with hundreds, if not thousands, more being held by smugglers.
HRW interviewed five Ethiopian migrants detained with 550 other migrants in the “narrow and unsanitary” detention center for the Houthis in Sanaa. Detainees were not given sleeping mattresses and had limited access to food and water, leading some to drink from taps over toilets, interviewees said.
Nadia Hardman, a refugee and migrant rights researcher at HRW, called on the Houthis to stop holding migrants in extreme conditions that put their lives at risk.
“The reckless use of weapons by the Houthis that caused scores of Ethiopian migrants to burn to death is a dire reminder of the dangers facing migrants in war-torn Yemen,” Hardman said.
The Iran-aligned Houthi group, which is in control of Sanaa and much of northern Yemen, is fighting a Saudi-led military coalition that intervened in 2015 to restore Yemen’s internationally recognized rule. The Houthis have launched an offensive to take over the oil-rich province of Marib, and in recent weeks have stepped up their attacks on neighboring Saudi Arabia.
On March 16, the coalition accused the Houthis of firing two ballistic missiles that hit an uninhabited part of southern Saudi Arabia on Monday. The Houthis also claimed responsibility for the drones fired at the King Khalid air base in the Saudi city of Khamis Mushait.
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