Over 60 illegal Sudanese immigrants – now detained in Amran's Central Prison – started a hunger strike protesting the silence of the respective authorities towards their problem particularly their embassy in Sana'a which, according to them, should work with Yemeni authorities to deport them back home.
The Sudanese immigrants – who were arrested close to Yemen's coasts as they were trying to enter Saudi lands – were arrested 50 days ago by Yemeni coast guard forces in Hajjah's Medi Island.
Sources told the News Yemen that the Sudanese immigrants started their hunger strike in an effort to force the respective authorities and the Sudanese Embassy in Sana'a to work towards their immediate release.
Following unproductive visits by the representatives of the Red Cross Organization and the Sudanese Embassy, the illegal immigrants resorted to hunger strike to force the concerned authorities deport them to their homeland, Sudan.
Last June, Yemeni coast guard forces positioned in Medi Island revealed that an unknown large boat boarding over 400 illegal Sudanese people of both sexes got them off in the island.
As they landed in the island, coast guard forces arrested them and sent them to Al-Hodeidah. About 100 persons were allowed to leave for Sudan, while the other 300 were sent to three different central prisons in Al-Hodeidah, Amran and Sana'a.
Like Sudanese illegal immigrants, thousands from the Horn of Africa take hazardous journeys every years to Yemen from which they enter the rich Gulf states, especially Saudi Arabia and Emirates.
Driven out by the constant wars between warlords in Somalia and the absence of central government, thousands of Somalis refugees run away to Yemen. Many of those have Yemen as their transit point from which they travel to Gulf countries, the States or European countries.
Others prefer to stay in Yemen and official authorities put their number at 750,000. They are kept in private camps or allowed to travel throughout the country in search for humble jobs.