OVER 5300 SOMALI REFUGEES ARRIVED IN YEMEN IN SEPTEMBER 2009

SANA'A, Sep.30 (Saba) - About 133 Somali refugees among them 33 women debarked Wednesday in Thubab coast in Taiz province and Broom coast in Hadramout province, Information Center of Interior Ministry said.

The main camp for Somali refugees in Kharaz area, Lahj province, has received 149 Somali refugees sent from the temporary lodging camp in Maifa'a district, Shabwa province, the center indicted.

Interior Ministry revealed that the number of Somali refugees, who arrived in the Yemeni territories during September 2009, amounted to about 3615 refugees among them about 1000 women and 100 children.

The center made it clear that the statistics in the coastal provinces showed that September 2009 witnessed a daily influx of Somali refugees to Yemen's coasts onboard of unsafe voyages, pointing that nearly 130 refugees died before setting their feet on the Yemeni coastlines.

On another hand, the center pointed out that the security services arrested Tuesday in Sharab district in Taiz province 98 Ethiopians among them 44women, who sneaked illegally into Yemen through the coast of Thubab.

The total number of Ethiopian migrants who sneaked to Yemen coming from the African Horn during September reached 500, according to a security statistic.

According to the Yemeni official statistics, more than 800,000 Somali refugees are in Yemen. However, the UNHCR estimated number of the refugees from Somalia at 160,000.

BA