Smuggling networks exploit chaos... Thousands of migrants continue to flow into Yemen

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The flow of African migrants to Yemen continues to escalate despite the intensification of fighting and the increase in security and military risks, in a scene that reveals the activity of human smuggling networks and their exploitation of deteriorating conditions and weak maritime control to conduct death-fraught journeys across the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, all the way to the Yemeni coast.

The International Organization for Migration reported, in its monthly report, that Yemen received 11,841 African migrants last September, bringing the total number of arrivals since the beginning of 2026 to 134,099 migrants, in a continuous flow that raises questions about the authorities’ ability to control the coast and confront smuggling networks, especially with the escalation of military tensions along the western coast and Bab al-Mandab.

According to the report, 71% of the migrants arrived via the coast of Djibouti to the governorates of Abyan and Taiz, while 26% came from the coast of Somalia and arrived in Shabwa Governorate, while the remaining percentage, amounting to 3%, entered through the Sultanate of Oman to Al-Mahra Governorate. Men constituted 70% of the total arrivals, compared to 15% for children and 15% for women.

The continued flow of migrants comes at a time when the Yemeni coast is witnessing a military escalation and increasing threats to navigation, especially in the areas of the western coast and Bab al-Mandab, which doubles the risks to which migrants are exposed and gives smuggling networks an opportunity to exploit weak oversight and the difficulty of controlling maritime routes.

The UN figures reflect the expansion of the irregular migration movement towards Yemen, even though the country itself is suffering from the repercussions of the war and the deterioration of the humanitarian and security conditions. This raises fears that the Yemeni coast will become an open corridor for human smuggling networks, which push migrants on dangerous journeys, often in overcrowded boats that are not prepared for safe sailing.

The risks are not limited to crossing the sea, but extend to the possibility of migrants being exposed to exploitation and violations during their journey and after their arrival, in light of the limited response and protection capabilities in the transit and reception areas.

In a bloody indication of the dangers of this path, at least 139 migrants recently died after their boat capsized off the coast of Djibouti, while 84 others are still missing, after a boat carrying about 350 people capsized during a trip from Djibouti to Yemen.

The continued influx of migrants, in conjunction with the military escalation in Yemen, poses an additional challenge to the authorities concerned with coastal security, and underscores the need to tighten maritime control, pursue smuggling networks, and enhance regional coordination, in addition to providing humanitarian protection for migrants.