Yemen's Torture Camps
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HUMAN RIGHTS YEMEN’S TORTURE CAMPS Abuse of Migrants by Human Traffickers in a Climate of Impunity WATCH Yemen’s Torture Camps Abuse of Migrants by Human Traffickers in a Climate of Impunity Copyright © 2014 Human Rights Watch All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America ISBN: 978-1-62313-1364 Cover design by Rafael Jimenez Human Rights Watch defends the rights of people worldwide. We scrupulously investigate abuses, expose the facts widely, and pressure those with power to respect rights and secure justice. Human Rights Watch is an independent, international organization that works as part of a vibrant movement to uphold human dignity and advance the cause of human rights for all. Human Rights Watch is an international organization with staff in more than 40 countries, and offices in Amsterdam, Beirut, Berlin, Brussels, Chicago, Geneva, Goma, Johannesburg, London, Los Angeles, Moscow, Nairobi, New York, Paris, San Francisco, Sydney, Tokyo, Toronto, Tunis, Washington DC, and Zurich. For more information, please visit our website: http://www.hrw.org MAY 2014 978-1-62313-1364 Torture Camps in Yemen Abuse of Migrants by Human Traffickers in a Climate of Impunity Summary and Recommendations ......................................................................................... 1 Methodology ..................................................................................................................... 17 I. Background ................................................................................................................... 20 Migration to Yemen ............................................................................................................... 20 Emigration from Ethiopia ....................................................................................................... 25 The Smugglers’ Town of Haradh ............................................................................................. 27 Regional Context ................................................................................................................... 28 II. The Journey ................................................................................................................... 30 Journey over Land ................................................................................................................... 31 Voyage over Sea ..................................................................................................................... 31 III. Torture Camps ............................................................................................................. 34 Journey in Yemen to the Camps .............................................................................................. 35 The Camps ............................................................................................................................ 37 Torture and Abuse ................................................................................................................. 40 Ransom ................................................................................................................................ 45 IV. After the Camps ........................................................................................................... 48 Recapture ............................................................................................................................. 49 Return to Ethiopia ................................................................................................................. 50 V. Role of the Yemeni Government .................................................................................... 52 Payoffs and Complicity .......................................................................................................... 52 Corruption by Checkpoint Officials around Haradh ................................................................. 53 Officials Allegedly Selling Migrants to Traffickers ................................................................... 56 Map: Government Checkpoints Allegedly “Selling” Migrants to Traffickers .............................. 57 Hierarchy of Corruption in Haradh .......................................................................................... 58 Raids .................................................................................................................................... 60 Failure to Prosecute Traffickers .............................................................................................. 63 After the Raids ...................................................................................................................... 67 VI. Role of the Saudi Government ...................................................................................... 68 Exit from Saudi Arabia ........................................................................................................... 70 VI. Yemen’s International Legal Obligations ....................................................................... 73 Trafficking ............................................................................................................................. 73 Obligations to Investigate Torture .......................................................................................... 75 Obligation to Investigate Violence Against Women ................................................................. 77 Special Obligations for the Treatment of Children ................................................................... 78 Acknowledgments ............................................................................................................ 80 Annex I: List of Cases Forwarded by Haradh Police to the Haradh Prosecution .................... 81 Summary anD RECOmmENDatiOns HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH | MAY 2014 1 Ethiopian migrants outside the Migrant Response Centre or decades, migrants from Africa have passed through Yemen to seek work in in Haradh, May 2013. Saudi Arabia. Since 2010, more than 337,000 migrants and refugees have landed Photographs by Michael Kirby Smith F on Yemen’s coastline from the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden. Their numbers rose significantly, and then dipped in July 2013, most likely due to a Saudi crackdown on undocumented migrant workers, only to rise again in March 2014. A multi-million- dollar trafficking and extortion racket has developed in Yemen based on the migrants’ passage. Its locus is the hot and dry northern Yemeni border town of Haradh, where one government official estimated that trafficking and smuggling make up about 80 percent of the economy. 2 YEMEN’S TOrturE CamPS HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH | MAY 2014 3 above: Ethiopian migrants praying outside the Migrant Response Centre in Haradh, May 2013. left: Ethiopian migrants outside the Migrant Response Centre in Haradh, May 2013. Since 2006, Yemeni traffickers in and around Haradh have found a particularly horrific way to make money: by taking migrants captive and transporting them to iso- lated camps, where they inflict severe pain and suffering to extort money from the migrants’ relatives and friends in Ethiopia and Saudi Arabia. In interviews with Human Rights Watch, migrants who survived or escaped these places referred to them as “torture camps.” Their accounts, along with those of traf- fickers, smugglers, government officials, and health and aid workers, paint a picture of an enduring network of illegal operations that, according to them, is bound to- gether by Yemeni officials of various ranks and positions who at a minimum take bribes to turn a blind eye, or may play a more active and insidious role in the operations. Except for a spate of Yemeni government raids that ended in 2013, the authorities have done little to stop the traf- ficking. Officials have more frequently warned traffickers of raids, freed them from jail when they are arrested, and in some cases, have actively helped the traffickers cap- ture and detain migrants. Between June 2012 and March 2014, Human Rights Watch interviewed 67 people for this report, including 18 male mi- 4 YEMEN’S TOrturE CamPS HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH | MAY 2014 5 grants from Ethiopia, of whom 4 migrated when boys, 10 “Welcome to hell,” one trafficker told a migrant upon his -ar Aid workers told Human Rights Watch they observed wall of the Migrant Response Centre in Haradh, which is traffickers and smugglers, as well as health professionals, rival at a camp. An official shared with Human Rights Watch signs of abuse in migrants consistent with their ac- run by the International Organization for Migration, and government officials, activists, diplomats, and journalists. information on 12 such camps, and thought the total num- counts of traffickers ripping off their fingernails, burning dump the person there. ber in the area was 30; a long-time aid worker put the num- the cartilage of their ears, branding their skin with irons, Migrants told Human Rights Watch that armed men ber of camps in and around Haradh at 200. Some camps gouging out their eyes, and breaking their bones. Health The use of torture against migrants is highly profitable. greeted them as they waded onto shore from rickety consist simply of a walled yard where traffickers hold doz- professionals at a Haradh medical facility said they com- Migrants who spoke to Human Rights Watch said their boats on the Yemeni coast. “They kept pointing their ens or even hundreds of migrants, sometimes with only a monly saw migrants with injuries including lacerations