The World's Busiest Migration Route doesn't go to Europe: It goes from Africa to Yemen

According to the data collected by the International Organization for Migration's Displacement Tracking Matrix, more than 138,000 people crossed the Gulf of Aden into Yemen last year, compared to more than 110,000 who crossed the Mediterranean during the same period. This amount, where the "Eastern Route" predominates over the Mediterranean one, has been repeated for the second year in a row, reaching 150,000 people in 2018.

However, about 90 per cent of the people who successfully reached Yemen don't plan to stay in the Arab country, but rather want to continue their journey to Saudi Arabia. The vast majority of them - 92 per cent - come from three rural regions of Ethiopia: Oromia, Amhara and Tigray.

"While the tragedies that have occurred on the Mediterranean routes are well documented, every day our staff see the abuses that young people in the Horn of Africa suffer at the hands of smugglers and traffickers who exploit their hopes for a better life", said Mohammed Abdiker, IOM's regional director for the East and Horn of Africa.  

Paradoxically, migration on the Eastern Route didn't decrease despite five years of conflict in Yemen. Migrants didn't seem to be intimidated by strict immigration policies in the Gulf for undocumented migrants. 

"To get to Yemen, they put about 280 of us on a boat", a 32-year-old Ethiopian told IOM in the Yemeni city of Aden. "There wasn't any air, and some people committed suicide by throwing themselves into the sea”. IOM stresses that most of those affected are unaware of the security situation in Yemen where they suffer serious protection problems or abuses such as abduction, torture, exploitation and trafficking. "When we arrived in Yemen, we were held by smugglers for a month", said one 18-year-old Ethiopian migrant. "We were beaten, tortured, abused and threatened with a ransom. My family sent $900 to save my life, so I was free along with other people who had paid”, he added.

Smugglers and traffickers operate their boats from Oboc in Djibouti and Bosaso in Somalia. Last year, the majority of migrants - 62 per cent - arrived on the southern coast of Yemen from Somalia. For most of the migrants, the journey from their home to Saudi Arabia can take several months.

IOM recalled that the most effective means of protection for migrants was to establish legal channels for migration, and similarly highlighted as an example last year's agreement between Ethiopia and Saudi Arabia establishing a system for the recruitment of domestic workers, which had been followed by a first application for 100,000 workers.