‘African migrants face rape, torture in Aden’

DUBAI: Yemeni government employees have abused men, women and children held in detention after they fled the Horn of Africa, Human Rights Watch said.

The watchdog said government employees "tortured, raped, and executed" migrants and asylum seekers at a detention centre in the southern port of Aden. Migrants held at the Buraika detention facility -- in use since early 2017 -- were denied refugee protection and often deported en masse into rough seas, according to HRW.

In a statement to the group, Yemen’s interior ministry said it had dismissed the detention centre’s commander and had begun transferring detainees to another facility. Many of the detainees, notably boys, were allegedly raped by guards.

"Every night, they would take one to rape them," a former detainee told HRW. "Not all of them. The small ones. The little ones. I know seven boys who were sexually assaulted... You could hear what was happening."

At least two male detainees were shot dead, according to witnesses. The United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR) has published a parallel report corroborating the findings and calling for "unfettered access" to detainees.

In January, at least 30 migrants drowned off the coast of Aden in a ship bound for Djibouti, the UN and the International Organisation for Migration said. "The Yemeni government bears responsibility for the deaths of deported detainees at sea," said Human Rights Watch.

The watchdog also placed blame on the United Arab Emirates, a major player in the Saudi-led coalition that militarily intervened in Yemen in March 2015 to help the government push back Huthi rebels.

Emirates-backed Security Belt forces were charged with "rounding up and transport(ing)... migrants and displaced people to the detention centre". Yemen’s interior ministry told HRW it did not control Security Belt units.