Ministry of Expatriates’ Affairs no longer eligible to continue business [Archives:2007/1116/Opinion]

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December 31 2007

Dr. Ala'a Al-Saffar
Editor-in-Chief of Nabanews.net

Recently, I was of the optimism to meet President Ali Abdullah Saleh in order to inform him about the latest Expatriates Affairs Ministry's scores with the hope of persuading him that such a ministry is no longer eligible to continue its business. This ministry has retained nobody inside in the homeland except for children, aged people and women, and its unwise policies brought to 6.2 million the number of Yemeni expatriates abroad.

If we are betting on institutional reforms, we have to reform ourselves before we do such things. We have to admit before Mr. President that we are not talking in the name of his electoral platform.

We only praise Mr. President saying “Allah Protects Him” repeatedly in order for us to remain in our posts and build a good future for our children from public funds. Otherwise, how Mr. President notes that the number of expatriates did not exceed 2 millions, according to the most recent census while in light of estimates released by the Ministry of Expatriates' Affairs, the number of expatriates goes beyond six million.

Is it the fault of those who talk about another country, which we don't know? Or is the fault of those who laugh at our programs and plans?

We claim that institutional building of the state is based on studies, and accurate stats and data. Please let us show you some of the stats the Ministry of Expatriates' Affairs relied on to set up its action plans.

First of all, the ministry doesn't differentiate between an 'immigrant' and an 'expatriate'. It doesn't learn that the former is excluded from the development plans for being settling down in another country while the latter is included in these plans because he/she doesn't have the country of expatriation as his/her homeland.

The ministry estimated that Yemeni expatriates in Indonesia, India, Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei number nearly 5.2 million souls. Releasing such stats, the ministry wants even to say that it is sponsoring graves of the dead immigrants, who left the country in the times of Islamic Conquests. Praise be to Allah since the ministry has not counted the Yemeni tribes that migrated from Yemen to other states following collapse of Marib Dam.

According to the ministry's scores, there are around 41,600 Yemeni expatriates in the United States and Canada. Had the ministry but followed up the external visits made by President Ali Abdullah Saleh to various countries, it would have learned that scores, estimated by the Yemeni community in the U.S. during the most recent visit by Saleh to that country, revealed that nearly three hundred thousand Yemeni expatriates exist in the United States. And, in Canada, the number of expatriates range between 6,000 and 6,500 souls, most of whom entered Canada in the wake of 1994 Civil War while the ministry alleges that the number of expatriates in this country doesn't exceed 1,500.

The ministry also estimated the number of Yemeni expatriates in the United Kingdom at only 22,000 while their real number exceeds 50,000. It seems that the ministry fears saying that the majority of expatriates belong to the opposition and that they were added to the opposition as the state neglects them. As the Embassy of the Yemeni government in London stopped sponsoring expatriates in the host country, the British city of Birmingham has become one of the largest cities in the world housing the Yemeni opposition.

Source: NabaNews.net
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