VZCZCXYZ0000
RR RUEHWEB

DE RUEHYN #0215/01 0380751
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 070751Z FEB 09
FM AMEMBASSY SANAA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 1119
INFO RUEHRH/AMEMBASSY RIYADH 1587
RUEHJI/AMCONSUL JEDDAH 0419

UNCLAS SANAA 000215 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPT FOR NEA/ARP AMACDONALD AND DRL JBARGHOUT 
JEDDAH FOR JLIVINGSTON 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PHUM PGOV SOCI YM
SUBJECT: LIFE ON THE BORDER: CHILD MIGRATION IN YEMEN'S 
NORTHERN GOVERNORATES 
 
¶1.  SUMMARY.  Thousands of children in Yemen's northern 
governorates travel illegally to Saudi Arabia in search of 
work, despite the dangers inherent in this path.  Children 
face physical and sexual abuse, as well as grinding poverty 
across the border.  Increasing ROYG awareness and efforts by 
the international donor community to reduce the migration of 
underage laborers into Saudi Arabia are the beginnings of a 
solution to this detrimental social phenomenon.  END SUMMARY. 
 
¶2.  Poverty, political instability and a lack of 
opportunities in Yemen's northern governorates create a ripe 
atmosphere for child trafficking, the Ministry of Social 
Affairs and Labor's (MSAL) Child Labor Unit Manager Muna 
Salim said in a February 2 meeting with PolOff.  A 2006 
International Organization for Migration (IOM) study showed 
that border communities lack basic health services, 
government facilities and adequate schools.  According to an 
October 2008 UNICEF report, soaring food prices and local 
effects of the global economic crisis put more children at 
risk of being trafficked across the border to work in the 
Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), perceived by impoverished 
Yemenis as the land of opportunity. 
 
HEAVY TRAFFIC 
------------- 
 
¶3.  UNICEF's Chief of Child Protection Judith Leveillee told 
PolOff on February 2 that traveling to work in KSA is 
considered a "rite of passage" for children living on the 
border.  Despite the dangers, most children choose to migrate 
in search of work ) as street beggars, vendors or domestic 
help ) and a better life.  On February 1, Ahmed Al-Quraishi 
of SEYAJ, an organization that promotes children's rights, 
said that children are also used to traffic drugs, including 
qat and prescription painkillers, into KSA because they are 
less likely to be punished by border guards.  Children caught 
by Saudi authorities are usually deported to Yemen ) 
sometimes after time in a Saudi jail ) only to try again a 
few months later.  The Children's Parliament, a body of child 
representatives created in 2004 to address children's issues 
in Yemen, identified trafficking as a top issue in its 2008 
shadow report on the state of Yemen's children.  Although no 
reliable statistics exist, Leveillee said Saudi officials 
deport hundreds of illegal Yemeni migrants, including minors, 
every day.  In 2008, 500 trafficked children were 
rehabilitated in the center for trafficked children in Harath 
(Hajja governorate) and 83 in a similar center in Sana'a. 
Lamia al-Iryani, head of the Shawthab Foundation for 
children's advocacy, told PolOff on January 31 that children 
themselves sometimes work as traffickers because they are 
less likely to be stopped and searched. 
 
SOCIAL EFFECTS 
-------------- 
 
¶4.  Migrant children face significant dangers across the 
border.  In April 2008, villagers in Hajja told UNICEF staff 
that a high percentage of boys who traveled to KSA looking 
for work were sexually abused.  An unpublished UNICEF study 
reported that a quarter of children deported to Yemen from 
KSA suffered from hunger and physical violence while abroad, 
and 65% reported sleeping on the streets or in mosques. 
Leveillee said that because of the culture of child labor so 
prevalent in border areas and the fact that many underage 
migrants are fleeing abuse, many returned children can not be 
reintegrated into their families, and slip through the social 
cracks again. 
 
STEMMING THE FLOW 
----------------- 
 
¶5.  As a result of increased recognition of the problem of 
child trafficking, the ROYG and major donors have begun to 
direct more funding and attention to the border governorates 
of Hajja and Saada.  To address the problem, the ROYG has a 
National Action Plan, which includes engaging imams and other 
community leaders and conducting public awareness campaigns. 
In 2009, the EU will fund a program in Saada to rehabilitate 
children affected by the 2008 war between the al-Houthi 
rebels and government forces.  CARE International is 
beginning a program to build 100 schools in Hajja. 
 
COMMENT 
------- 
 
¶6.  After years of ignoring the twin problems of child labor 
and child trafficking, serious recognition and subsequent 
action plans by the ROYG are a welcome step in the right 
 
direction.  More ROYG resources, however, are needed to 
address the problem adequately.  For the time being, the 
donor community will have to continue to work with partners 
limited by a chronic lack of funding.  END COMMENT. 
SECHE