MOGADISHU (Halbeeg News) – UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency has confirmed that over 6,200 Somali Refugees Voluntarily Returned Home from Yemen Since 2017 with the latest departure, being a boat carrying 150 Somali refugees which left the Port of Aden in less than a week.
According to the agency, the boat arrived at the Port of Berbera on 10 September. The voluntary returns are part of UNHCR’s Assisted Spontaneous Return (ASR) programme. For the first time, 26 Somali refugees residing in the north of the country were assisted to join this boat departure.
The program is facilitated by UNHCR in cooperation with humanitarian partners and authorities in Yemen and Somalia. Those wishing to return home are assisted by UNHCR and partners.
They are helped with medical screening, documentation, transportation, and financial support in Yemen to facilitate the journey, as well as return and reintegration assistance in Somalia.
During the process, UNHCR’s partner staff counsels each family to ensure that their decision is voluntary and well-informed.
UNHCR and its partners provide relevant updates on the areas of return, including information on the services available and the support they can expect upon return.
UNCHR informs them that if they have any concerns, they can change their minds at any time before departure.
Yemen hosts the third largest Somali refugee population, around 65 percent of more than 71,000 refugees and asylum seekers registered with UNHCR.
It is a long-standing refugee host nation and the only country in the Arabian Peninsula that is a signatory to the Refugee Convention and its protocol.
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