To Prevent the Flow of Terrorists YEMEN SUSPENDS ACCESS VISAS TEMPORARILY [Archives:2001/47/Front Page]

Official sources at the Ministry of Interior said that Yemen decided to temporarily suspend issuing access visas to the country at Yemeni airports. The 26 September newspaper, mouthpiece of the Ministry of Defense, confirmed this news and reported that the government has halted the issuance of access visas to Yemen at airports and other main routes for three months to all nationalities. The paper said that this new system would be applied beginning last Saturday and that it aims to prevent the leakage of terrorists or suspects fleeing Afghanistan. According to this new system, people from the USA and the EU countries who were given this facility will now have to get an access visa to Yemen from Yemeni embassies in their respective countries.
This comes after official sources denied two weeks ago the reports of the termination of giving access visas at the airport, which has resulted in speculations of whether the government did or did not suspend access visas.
Yemen has carried out stiff measures against people suspected of having links with Osama bin Laden and has arrested a good number of them. Since 1996, Yemen has also deported over 14,000 Arab Afghans who fought against the Soviet occupying forces in Afghanistan. Most of these mujahideens also fought against the Yemen Socialist Party’s forces in the 1994 Civil War.

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