(April 05, 2012, The Yemen Times)--The Ethiopian refugee Seble Yohanes told the Yemen Times that she is only thirty, but her pale face with wide eyes full of concern makes her looks as if she was 50.
Looking for a safe place to raise her demands, Yohanes went to the Ministry of Human Rights in the Yemeni capital of Sana'a on Saturday. Yohanes, along with other refugees from Ethiopia, decided to sleep on the pavement next to the Ministry.
During the daytime, this exposed place becomes a sit-in rally to demand protection of their rights from the United Nations Higher Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the Yemeni government. "The police forces arrested us in front of the Human Rights Ministry," Yohanes said, with fear evident in her pallid face at the thought of police, who have repeatedly raided illegal refugees in Yemen and arrested as many as they can.
Ethiopian refugees contacted Yohanes and her compatriots in an attempt to relay details of the inhuman conditions inside the police detention center, intensifying her fear of ending up like them.
Yohanes handed her mobile over to a Yemen Times reporter while Hathem, Yohanes' friend speaking on the phone while being held in a crowded detention center in Sana'a, tried to paint a vivid picture of his brutal conditions and suffering, in the hopes that the whole world might know about those in the detention centers.
More than 220 imprisoned Ethiopians are kept inside a single room. The prisoners are subjected to beating and only given one meal a day, according to Hathem. Read more from The Yemen Times »
During the daytime, this exposed place becomes a sit-in rally to demand protection of their rights from the United Nations Higher Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the Yemeni government. "The police forces arrested us in front of the Human Rights Ministry," Yohanes said, with fear evident in her pallid face at the thought of police, who have repeatedly raided illegal refugees in Yemen and arrested as many as they can.
Ethiopian refugees contacted Yohanes and her compatriots in an attempt to relay details of the inhuman conditions inside the police detention center, intensifying her fear of ending up like them.
Yohanes handed her mobile over to a Yemen Times reporter while Hathem, Yohanes' friend speaking on the phone while being held in a crowded detention center in Sana'a, tried to paint a vivid picture of his brutal conditions and suffering, in the hopes that the whole world might know about those in the detention centers.
More than 220 imprisoned Ethiopians are kept inside a single room. The prisoners are subjected to beating and only given one meal a day, according to Hathem. Read more from The Yemen Times »
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