Immigrants' Holocaust in Sanaa ... an urgent burial of the victims and demonstrations demanding an investigation

When Ahmed put his foot on the boat that would take him to the other side of the sea on his way to Saudi Arabia, 7 months ago, Yemen seemed to him just a stop, but the country mired in war was making deep scars in the memory of the Ethiopian boy.

This immigrant, who preferred to have a pseudonym for security reasons, says that he has faced many horrors and difficulties since he landed on the coast, in southern Yemen, to reach Sana'a.

He adds to Al-Jazeera Net, "We arrived in Sana'a to register our names with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, but weeks ago the authorities launched a campaign to detain us, some of them from their workplaces."

But the fire, which affected a detention center for immigrants, and caused dozens of deaths, brought back the chapters of the tragedy for Ahmed and more than 280,000 refugees from the Horn of Africa living in Yemen, according to the latest UNHCR figures.

Figures conflicting

Despite the passage of a week, the details of the incident are still unfolding in succession, and the Houthi group in control of Sanaa has confessed to the killing of 43 migrants.

The statement of the representative communities of refugees in Yemen said in a press conference, Saturday, that the number of immigrants were about 800 in the detention center, distributed in 5 wards, of which ward No. 1 was burned, leaving 44 dead and 202 wounded, all of them left the hospital except for 21 who are still receiving treatment among them. 4 their condition is critical.

But the announced number raised the immigrants, and an informed source in the Ethiopian community told Al-Jazeera Net that the number is close to 510 dead, indicating that the heads of the communities that signed the burial statement were threatened, in order to cover up the incident.

He added, "We were there, and the fire engulfed an entire ward in which hundreds were being held, and according to what we have documented until this moment, about 450 people have been charred on the spot, and about 60 others have died of their injuries."

He explained, "The Houthis imposed a broad blackout on the incident, and took some of the victims to unknown places, and spent 100,000 Yemeni riyals (about 170 US dollars) for those who were injured in the accident and those who were detained, so that they would not speak."

The International Organization for Migration in Yemen said that it was not able to assess the impact of the disaster in terms of the number of deaths, and a spokeswoman for its office, Olivia Headon, told Al-Jazeera Net, that estimates talked about 30 to 60 people killed, but it confirmed that more than 170 people were injured.

"There were 900 detainees (3 times the facility's capacity) present at the site. Specifically, in the warehouse where the fire broke out," she added.

She noted that reaching survivors was a challenge due to the increased security presence in the hospitals.

According to witnesses, the Houthi gunmen were then deployed to hospitals and forced the migrant employees to leave.

The cause of the fire

The UN official did not mention the causes of the fire, since the organization is not within its authority to investigate the accident, but it immediately deployed medical teams, took the victims to the hospital, and provided the victims with medical supplies, in addition to food, clothes and hygiene supplies.

Al-Jazeera Net tried to obtain a response from the Houthi authorities, but refused to comment and was satisfied with what the Saba Agency published in its Houthi version, on the authority of the head of the National Committee for Refugees, Hussein Al-Ezzi, today, Saturday, during his meeting with the resident representative of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Sana'a, John Nicholas.

Al-Ezzi said that the fire incident was accidental, accusing some international humanitarian organizations of neglecting their duties.

Earlier, the Houthi committee accused, in a previous meeting, the International Organization for Migration and its implementing partners of failing to fulfill their obligations, indicating that it did not provide support to migrants.

However, Jamda Soti, who is the head of the Oromia Future Network for Ethiopian News, told Al-Jazeera Net that the incident was preceded by the Houthis' detention of more than a thousand Ethiopian refugees in the Passport Authority building east of Sanaa, and they imposed a fine of 150,000 riyals ($ 250) on each refugee in exchange for his release. .

He added, "The detainees refused to pay because some of them did not have the money, and began a hunger strike to demand improvement in their conditions."

Soti said that the Houthis stormed the detention center and a clash occurred between them and the detainees, who forced them to withdraw, and after that, the guards opened fire to immediately return the two dead.

"After that, an additional force arrived and threw tear gas canisters, and then they fired an incendiary grenade to cause the fire," he said.

The incident angered immigrants to organize demonstrations in front of the headquarters of the International Organization for Migration for the fifth day, calling for an investigation into the accident.

Dire conditions

The demonstrators are also calling for the immediate release of the detainees, punishment for those involved in the incident, and an end to the campaign launched by the Houthis against them, and the provision of adequate shelters for them.

However, the Houthi authorities have given the demonstrators a specific date to lift the sit-in and the demonstrations in front of the commission, otherwise they will intervene by force to disperse the demonstrators, according to what he told Al-Jazeera Net Ibsa Hassan, one of the participants in the demonstrations.

According to a source in the capital, Sana'a, who spoke to Al-Jazeera Net, declining to reveal his identity, the refugees are being held in extremely harsh conditions, as they accumulate in large numbers in unprepared warehouses.

He explained that the migrants could not find a place to sleep or blankets in their detention place, which the fire broke out in, and that food was only delivered to them through the International Organization for Migration and distributed randomly.

He added, "Migrants were gathered on trucks from different areas, and some of them were detained and others were thrown into the mountains in the Al-Qobaytah district in the Lahj governorate, located in the south on the lines separating the control of government forces and the Houthis, without being given any aid."

For years, Yemen has been a stop on the way for migrants coming from the Horn of Africa to the Gulf countries, but the closure of the borders with Saudi Arabia due to the war and the outbreak of the Corona epidemic imposed on Ahmed and his companions a new reality that may shock them.

Ahmed told Al-Jazeera Net over the phone, "I am really thinking of going back to my country. We have lived through death many times. We were not able to move to Saudi Arabia and we did not find shelter in Sanaa."