Health is one issueNew refugee law requested [Archives:2005/824/Local News]

By Mohammed Bin Salam

Yemen Times Staff

The number of Ethiopian and Somali refugees, as well as with other nationalities, in Yemen has exceeded 400,000 according to non-official sources.

A parliamentary report requested last week a new law to organize the refugees according to the commitments of Yemen under the frame of the Refugees International Agreement, and its protocol that was approved in 1980.

A report presented by the Foreign and Immigrants Affairs Committee on the results of a field visit to Lahj and Aden requested the government to control such refugees, and smugglers who help refugees come to Yemen. It also asked the government to quickly judge the Ethiopian and Somali refugees' cases.

It asked the government to audit and supervise refugees' conditions, and to take care of the services offered to them by the authorities and the international organizations.

The committee recommended that the government should make the medical checks for all refugees available in Yemen, to confirm their having no dangerous diseases. It recommended the necessity for establishing specialized medical centers in all entrances of refugees.

The report also appealed to the government for rebuilding Kharaz Camp, providing it with electricity and water and opening another refugees camp. It suggested the talks with UNHCR for accepting the number of refugees who have not been registered yet.

Some consider the refugees to be a great economic and social burden on the Yemeni government.
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