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In an abandoned football stadium in Aden, Yemeni city, hundreds of African migrants find themselves in limbo – forbidden to travel, but in the impossibility of returning home.
For the most part from Ethiopia, migrants face difficult conditions after being confined to the government's bastion stage, according to the UN's migration agency.
"The site is not made to host anyone, not even one person, let alone thousands of people," said Olivia Headon, spokesperson for the International Organization for Migration (IOM) in Yemen.
While most of the 1,789 migrants are adult men, they also include 389 boys and 28 girls under the age of 18, Headon said. The youngest is thought to be 11 years old.
In the last four years of conflict, Yemen is plunged into chaos. Iranian-backed Huthi rebels and a rival pro-government military alliance led by Saudi Arabia have been accused of acts that may constitute war crimes.
But the country remains on a well-established route for migrants from the Horn of Africa, who usually make a first trip by land through Djibouti before finally embarking on dangerous boat trips across the Gulf of Aden to Yemen.
Mohammed Nour recently traveled this heavily traveled route from his home country, Ethiopia, in the hope that Yemen would be a temporary halt to Saudi Arabia.
"I do not want to work in Yemen, I want to work in Saudi Arabia," he told AFP at the makeshift camp.
Many migrants are trying to cross Yemen to Gulf countries such as Saudi Arabia, often looking for work. But many do not even survive the trip, dying at sea or in the hands of panicked smugglers.
"Mbad health concern"
According to the UN, nearly 150,000 migrants arrived in Yemen last year.
The IOM said that about 92% of the migrants were Ethiopians, the others coming from Somalia.
The southern port of Aden – which houses the beleaguered government – is currently not on the front line of the war in Yemen, but is still plagued by economic problems and poverty.
The city's security forces have launched a campaign to repatriate all migrants over the past week, an AFP police source said.
After placing them in makeshift camps in residential areas of the city, most of them were transferred to the stadium in the district of May 22, said the source.
There, they sit in the outdoor arena, picking bread, pleading with the officers or closing their eyes in the hot sun.
"There is no food or drink, there is no bathroom or shower, we are hungry, they are starving us, I told them that death is better. ", said Mohammed Nour to AFP.
The International Organization for Migration has decried the conditions in the camp where some 1,800 migrants are staying. By – (AFP)
Abdullah Nour, an Ethiopian migrant, said that he had been at the camp for two days.
"We had problems with the soldiers, with the police, there is no food or water, there is no shadow, we are stuck here under the sun", he declared.
Humanitarian agencies fear that living conditions in the camps will continue to deteriorate. Hundreds more migrants would be transferred there.
"They do not have access to toilets, they have to do their homework, which is a major health problem, and there is no shelter." There are no blankets, "said IOM spokeswoman Headon.
"We started to carry water by truck, organize medical screenings and distribute food, together with local organizations, but access to food resources is limited," he said. she adds.
IOM is now working with other branches of the UN to help stadium migrants return home, provided return is voluntary.
In January, the UN announced its intention to transport some 3,000 Ethiopian migrants by plane to Sanaa, in the capital, Addis Ababa. Hundreds have already returned.
Voluntary flight returns resumed last year after being suspended in 2015, when the war in Yemen worsened with the intervention of a regional military force led by Saudi Arabia.
Since the coalition's intervention, nearly 10,000 people have been killed, according to the World Health Organization, although other groups claim that the toll is significantly higher.
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