VZCZCXYZ0000
RR RUEHWEB

DE RUEHYN #0211/01 0331526
ZNY SSSSS ZZH
R 021526Z FEB 10
FM AMEMBASSY SANAA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 3695
INFO RUEHZM/GULF COOPERATION COUNCIL COLLECTIVE
RUEHDS/AMEMBASSY ADDIS ABABA 0301
RUEHAM/AMEMBASSY AMMAN 0273
RUEHAE/AMEMBASSY ASMARA 0704
RUEHDJ/AMEMBASSY DJIBOUTI 0605
RUEKDIA/DIA WASHINGTON DC

S E C R E T SANAA 000211 
 
SIPDIS 
NOFORN 
 
DEPT FOR NEA/ARP AMACDONALD, INR JYAPHE, PRM/AF JDEUTSCH 
ADDIS FOR REFCOORD INGA HEEMINK 
AMMAN FOR REFCOORD RUSTY INGRAHAM 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 01/26/2020 
TAGS: PREF PTER PREL SMIG PGOV UNHCR SO YM
SUBJECT: FEARS OF AL-SHABAAB TIES PROMPT ROYG REVIEW OF 
POLICY ON SOMALI REFUGEES 
 
REF: A. SANAA 2116 
     ¶B. SANAA 1851 
 
Classified By: Ambassador Stephen Seche for reasons 1.4(b) and (d). 
 
¶1.  (C) SUMMARY.  The ROYG's recent call for universal 
registration of all refugees in Yemen has raised fears among 
African refugees, particularly of Somali origin, that they 
will be deported due to the ROYG's suspicions of Al-Shabaab 
support to terrorist elements and to the Houthi rebels in 
Sa'ada.  The ROYG has declared that all refugees must 
register within two months or risk deportation and has 
reportedly stepped up patrols and roadblocks outside refugee 
centers known to host large numbers of Somalis.  This 
crackdown comes on the heels of Somali militant terrorist 
group Al-Shabaab's pledged support for the Houthi rebels in 
northern Yemen and for Al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula 
(AQAP).  Aid workers report that refugees have been detained, 
interrogated, and deported based on nothing more than 
unsubstantiated claims of terrorist or Houthi affiliation. 
Meanwhile, migration and aid experts believe the ROYG's call 
for all refugees to register within two months is unrealistic 
and points to hidden motives.  Some of these officials 
suggest that the call for registration could be a first step 
towards expelling refugees, especially those of Somali 
descent, based on dubious claims of terrorist affiliation, 
while the ROYG's true motivations may lie somewhere in 
between concerns on the security front and a desire to 
diminish what is viewed as a costly economic burden.  END 
SUMMARY. 
 
THE AL-SHABAAB SCARE 
-------------------- 
 
¶2.  (C) The Ministry of Interior announced on January 18 that 
all refugees must register within the next two months or else 
they will be deported.  Such a move represents a departure 
from the ROYG's previous policy of granting all Somali 
migrants prima facie refugee status.  Somalia's extremist 
terrorist organization Al-Shabaab, which is carrying out an 
armed rebellion against Somalia's Transitional Federal 
Government (TFG), has voiced support for al-Qa'ida in the 
Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) and the Houthi rebels in northern 
Yemen.  Yemen's Al-Watan Online, an Arabic publication known 
to support ROYG views, published a report declaring that 
Al-Shabaab's connection to AQAP and the Houthis prompted the 
ROYG to take "urgent precautionary measures to initiate a 
comprehensive record of African refugees and infiltrators 
into Yemen." 
 
¶3.  (C) Anecdotally, surveys of Somali refugees conducted by 
the International Organization of Migration (IOM) have turned 
up a few Somalis who admitted to traveling to Yemen to seek 
training with AQAP, but it is not clear whether or not they 
were members of Al-Shabaab or simply acting on their own. 
Stefano Tamagnini, IOM's Chief of Mission for Yemen, told 
PolOff on January 26 that the vast majority of Somali 
refugees are simply trying to escape a dangerous situation in 
their homeland and are in search of employment opportunities 
in Yemen and beyond in the Gulf.  While Tamagnini affirmed 
the value of a registration process for refugees, he warned 
of potential ROYG over-reaction to rumors of terrorist 
elements among the refugee population.  "The ROYG has other 
motives for registering refugees...they are reacting to the 
Shabaab scare." 
 
¶4.  (S/NF) Reporting through sensitive channels suggests 
there may have been some communication between Al-Shabaab and 
AQAP leadership in early January, but there is still no hard 
evidence of an Al-Shabaab presence in Yemen.  Additionally, 
there has been no solid evidence of Somali fighters in Sa'ada 
alongside the Houthis as the ROYG has claimed.  (NOTE:  ROYG 
officials have claimed that "Somali fighters" collaborating 
with the Houthis have been found dead in Sa'ada, without 
presenting any evidence in support of its claim.  It is more 
likely that any Somalis that may have been found in the 
Sa'ada area were en route to Saudi Arabia and simply 
following the major migration path for refugees seeking jobs 
in the Gulf.  END NOTE.)  Ayman Nasser, editor of 
independent, Aden-based Al-Tariq newspaper, told PolOff on 
February 2 that one of his field reporters had received 
 
unconfirmed reports that a few recruiters had approached 
Somali refugees with light arms experience near the Kharaz 
camp on behalf of Al-Shabaab. 
 
"WRONG PLACE, WRONG TIME" 
------------------------ 
 
¶5.  (C) Leila Nasser of the UNHCR office in Aden, where most 
African refugees in Yemen are processed, told EmbOff that the 
majority of Somalis and migrants from other Horn of Africa 
nations are seeking safety and economic opportunities.  Those 
stopped and detained by ROYG security forces looking for 
possible terrorists or those suspected of having Houthi 
connections "were just in the wrong place at the wrong time." 
 According to Nasser, African refugees automatically come 
under suspicion, especially if they are picked up in the 
northern regions of Yemen, even though they are actually 
trying to get to Saudi Arabia or other Gulf countries where 
there are more lucrative employment options.  Yemen's 
Political Security Organization (PSO) can take any refugee 
they suspect of terrorist or Houthi ties from the camps 
without evidence.  Only one refugee has been taken from the 
Kharaz UNHCR camp for suspected terrorist ties that Nasser 
knows of, but she said, "in the north, the numbers of 
refugees taken to prison for alleged terrorist ties are much 
higher." 
 
¶6.  (C) Post and PRM have noted concerns regarding refugee 
access to the camps and third-party monitor access to 
detained refugees.  An unknown number of refugees are never 
documented and are taken into ROYG security custody before 
they ever reach one of the refugee centers, often intercepted 
along the coast or in the Gulf of Aden and the Red Sea before 
or right after they land.  (NOTE:  PolOff witnessed large 
numbers of prisoners of African origin being held in a 
Central Security prison in Hodeida in November.  When asked, 
the prison warden admitted they were all pre-trial prisoners 
being held without any formal charges except that of illegal 
immigration.  The prisoners, among them Somalis who are 
entitled to prima facie refugee status, had not been granted 
access to their embassies due to the belief that "they are 
all cooperating with the Houthis in Sa'ada."  END NOTE.) 
 
A NUMBERS GAME 
-------------- 
 
¶7.  (C) Extrapolating from recent years' rates of 
registration of Somali refugees,  some estimates suggest that 
Yemen is currently home to 600,000 to 700,000 Somali refugees 
(by far the largest component of the refugee population), in 
addition to refugees from a number of other African nations 
including Eritrea and Ethiopia and, in lesser numbers, Kenya 
and Djibouti.  According to the United Nations High 
Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), 77,800 new arrivals 
travelled from the Horn of Africa to its registration centers 
in the south in 2009, which represents a 55 percent increase 
from the 50,200 that arrived in 2008.  (NOTE:  UNHCR is 
legally bound to report only those arrivals from Somalia that 
have passed through its registration centers and have been 
granted official refugee status, but it acknowledges that the 
influx is much larger than what is captured by official 
statistics.  END NOTE.)  Samer Haddedin, UNHCR Refugee 
Coordinator, told PolOff on February 2 that "nobody knows how 
big the population really is, but we believe the government's 
800,000 estimate is inflated for political purposes."  The 
bulk of Yemen's Somali refugees arrived in steady streams 
since 1992, however these numbers have been increasing 
sharply in the last three years.  According to Haddedin, 
"Though no one is sure, we think almost 50 percent of the 
migrant and refugee population arrived in the last two 
years." 
 
 
SOMALIS UNDER EXTRA SCRUTINY 
---------------------------- 
 
¶8. (U) Shabeele Media Network, an independent online 
publication based in Mogadishu, reported on January 23 that 
Somali refugees in Yemen have been subject to more scrutiny 
following Al-Shabaab's threat to send fighters to take up 
arms against the ROYG.  According to Shabeele, Somali 
 
refugees have been banned from traveling from camp to camp or 
from residing outside one of the refugee camps, and ROYG 
security forces have established roadblocks outside of the 
Qaras Refugee camp where more than 25,000 Somali refugees 
reside.  Haddedin told PolOff on February 2 that he had heard 
reports of Somalis being subjected to "extra hardships and 
discrimination, and the government is limiting the movement 
of the Somalis.  If a Somali is found without a registration 
document, the security forces can arrest them."  Al-Watan 
Online also reported that the ROYG has tightened its security 
measures along the coasts and other locations because 
"terrorists and saboteurs have been recruiting Somali 
refugees in the Ras al-Arah area of Lahj and trafficking them 
to some areas of Sa'ada."  President Saleh, in an interview 
with Abu Dhabi TV on January 12, lamented the fact that 
Al-Shabaab's statement of support to AQAP would require ROYG 
security forces to alter their stance regarding Somali 
refugees.  Saleh warned that "the Somalis should be cautious 
and track the infiltrators in their villages and camps and 
immediately report them to the security forces, so that they 
(the rest of the Somali refugee population) would not 
experience any form of harassment by the security forces." 
 
THE SOMALI SCAPEGOAT 
-------------------- 
 
¶9.  (C) Oakley Duff, President of Odyssey Migration Control 
and head of IOM's recent assessment of Yemen's border 
security and migration policies, told PolOff on January 26 
that, "all the officials I have met with recently have a new 
mantra, 'Security is our number one priority.'"  Calling the 
new deadline for refugee registration "completely 
unrealistic," Tamagnini questions how the ROYG would 
accomplish a thorough and fair registration of refugees in 
the timeframe they have indicated, especially considering the 
ROYG's lack of a viable plan and the Somalis' fear of 
wrongful imprisonment.  "The vast majority of refugees, 
particularly Somalis, will refuse to register because they 
will fear that they'll be thrown into jail or deported."  An 
estimated 95 percent of Yemen's refugees are from Somalia. 
Haddedin told PolOff on February 2 that "the government is 
thinking of changing the legal status of the Somali refugees, 
so that no new arrivals could claim prima facie refugee 
status."  In addition to security concerns, ROYG officials 
have repeatedly voiced other reasons to reject Somali 
immigrants, including a belief that Somalis are bringing 
disease, crime, and greater unemployment to Yemen (REF B). 
Colonel Lotf A. H. Al-Baraty, the General Director of the 
Yemen Coast Guard's Aden district, told PolOff that "Somalis 
are the source of huge economic costs on Aden and bring 
disease and begging to our streets."  (NOTE: UNHCR and aid 
donations cover the bulk of the financial costs associated 
with hosting Somali refugees in Yemen, and disease rates 
among refugee populations in the camps are actually lower 
than among the general Yemeni populace.  END NOTE.) 
 
COMMENT 
------- 
 
¶10.  (S/NF) While Al-Shabaab may have issued statements of 
support to AQAP, the lack of evidence of an Al-Shabaab 
presence in Yemen suggests that its support to AQAP remains 
largely ideological and rhetorical rather than logistical at 
this point.  The vast majority of Somali refugees in Yemen 
pose no terrorist threat to the ROYG, though the perceived 
economic burden they represent for a central government that 
has difficulty providing basic services to its own citizens 
has created resentment, social segregation, and 
discrimination among the Yemeni populace.  Furthermore, the 
lack of a viable plan to register all refugees within the two 
months the ROYG has allotted suggests that this measure could 
provide a pretext for deportations of Yemen's large Somali 
refugee population.  END COMMENT. 
SECHE