Saudi authorities erect barriers on Yemeni border to block Ethiopian and Somali refugees from entering Saudi Arabia
By Mohammed al-Kibsi, Yemen Observer
The Saudi Authorities commenced constructing a wall on the Saudi-Yemeni border in the district of Harad last Saturday, said a Sheikh from Harad who wished to remain anonymous.
He added that this wall breaks a Yemeni-Saudi treaty declaring the rights of both Yemeni and Saudi citizens to roam freely across the political border due to their need to cultivate crops and allow their animals to graze. The treaty also protects the rights of these citizens to ship their animals as needed.
The Marebpress website reported a Yemeni military source as saying that Yemeni border guards tried to stop Saudis from building the new wall. In response, the Saudis mobilized their military and threatened force if they were unable to start construction of the barriers. According to the same source, construction halted last Sunday but the Saudis resumed work on Monday. So far they have built deep tunnels and concrete arches and have laid barbed wire along the frontiers to the south of the Saudi towns of Towal, Masfaq, and Khawjarah.
The military source said that the Saudis informed them that the new barriers are necessary for protecting their borders against an influx of illegal immigrants and against the smuggling of drugs and weapons.
Local sources from Harad affirmed that more than 3000 tribesmen from villages adjacent to the areas where the new barriers are being built gathered on Saturday and Monday to rally against the new barrier, claiming it would harm their interests by preventing them from crossing to the other side of the borders to visit their relatives and cultivate their farms there.
Thousands of Yemenis and Africans are believed to have been leaking through the borders to Saudi Arabia daily.
Of the untold numbers of Somali and Ethiopian refugees that arrive on the shores of Yemen daily, those who make their way to Saudi Arabia usually travel through the Harad district. Those still in Yemen hear from the odd ones who make it to Saudi Arabia and believe that the trip is possible for them too.
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EDITOR’S NOTE
This is just one of the many indignities we Ethiopians have caused on ourselves due to our inability to create a political system that serves the country well. What we have in Ethiopia currently is a parasitic political system that pillages and plunders the country, forcing millions of Ethiopians to seek refugees in other countries.
One thought on “Saudi erects barriers to block Ethiopian refugees”
Where to go and what else to do?
Generally speaking a person is entitled to put a fence around his/her property to protect it from the trespassers by. In the same way, I think, King Abdullah bin Abdul-Aziz Al Saud of Saudi Arabia has the right to build a wooden- or an iron- or a stone-wall like the “Berlin Wall” or like the Israeli’s wall or the China Wall around his property – Saudi Arabia – so that fortune seekers from Ethiopia or Somalia should not enter his country without a proper documentation.
However, breaking a treaty that prohibits building a barrier between Yemen and Saudi Arabia is another serious matter that the two neighboring countries could easily settle it without declaring it as a big issue that leads to a boarder conflict. Of course, any country to protect the interest of its people can easily break any treaty at any time without even notifying the other party. Many countries had done it before, and will continue to do it again. For example, Germany invaded the Soviet Union in 1941, breaking the treaty between the two countries. In 1982 Argentine invaded the Falk Land Island without the knowledge of Great Britain. Therefore, breaking a treaty or fencing one’s own property is not new to many of us students of history.
What is new especially to us Ethiopians is to see our brothers and sisters leaving their motherland in a great number every year if not every day to start a new life in a foreign country, far away from Ethiopia. In fact, many of them die before they reach their destinations – Yemen or Saudi Arabia. Those who reach their journey’s end after a horrifying and breath-taking odyssey are turned back because they do not have the proper documentation or simply they do not speak the language of the people of the country they entered, or they may not have a proper training that qualifies them for the job market. Before they leave their motherland, no one has prepared them for the ordeals they would face in another country, particularly in Saudi Arabia, the magnet of many foreigners.
Those Ethiopians who are fortunate enough get a job, what ever it is, in Saudi Arabia, but they are mistreated by some of the Saudi Arabs. If they are women, they get raped, beaten up, and sent back home unpaid. They could not afford to hire a lawyer to get their money they labored hard for so many days and nights. Swallowing their tears, they easily get nostalgia,remembering their families and friends they left back home. Some prefer to end their lives by hanging themselves like criminals rather than live humiliated and dejected. They can’t go back home, for they don’t have enough money. Some don’t even know where the Ethiopian Embassy is located so that they could apply for help to go home, so their last choice is to go back to their cruel masters and live with them again.
Ethiopians are by nature very proud and hard working people; especially the Ethiopian women are not only attractive and beautiful but humble, obedient, respectful, and God-fearing persons. To see such people of ancient history, culture, and tradition fall into the hands of some imperious and abusive Arabs who are always infatuated by the beauties of the Ethiopian girls is a disgrace to all of us Ethiopians and especially to the Woyanne regime whose eyes, ears, and minds are only on one particular people – the Mekelle people – overlooking the rest of the Ethiopians.
Some Ethiopian step-mothers have had tarnished reputations in treating their step- sons or step-daughters; in the same way, Meles Zenawi to most Ethiopians is like those bad Ethiopian step-mothers who treat nicely their own biological sons and daughters. Mekelle as the biological son or daughter of Meles Zenawi appears healthier and vibrant while the rest of the people of Ethiopia as the step-sons and step-daughters of Meles Zenawi turn ashen. To save themselves from such a cruel and biased step-mother, many young Ethiopians have no other choices but to run away and altogether leave their country for a better one, but could they find it? Even if they find it, how could they cross the barrier the Saudis are erecting? Of course, no iron-wall or stone-wall could prevent well-determined people to reach their goals; as some people say: “If there is a will, there is always a way.”