Syrian refugees Sleep, beg on Yemen's streets

A Yemeni ‘’Aden Tomorrow" newspaper published a story Friday about a Syrian refugee family has been sleeping in the Sanaa streets for over a month.

The 6-person family, an old father with his wife and a teenage daughter and 3 kids have nothing, they made the sidewalk their bed and home.

‘’I could not continue my way, I stopped.. And picked up a picture of the family from afar,’’ Aden reporter said.

Syrian refugees in Yemen told Reuters that they could not afford Jordan's expenses. A Jordanian benefactor paid for their trip to Yemen and they ended up in Aden. The families carve out a living begging and making and selling prayer beads, Reuters reported in September.

Bruno Geddo, UNHCR's representative in Yemen, says to Reuters the country already hosts 240,000 refugees from Somalia, Ethiopia, Eritrea and Iraq. But the scale of the Syrian conflict, which has virtually laid waste to Mustafa's home town of Aleppo, seems to have prompted people "to run in all directions".

Many refugees endure hard camp conditions as prospects of a speedy return home fade, eking out a living as best they can.

But for some desperate Syrians the cost of living even in those tent cities is too high. Yemen, where nearly half of 25 million inhabitants are either hungry or on the edge of hunger, offers a last hope of sanctuary for a growing number.

UNHCR says there are about 900 registered Syrian refugees in Yemen, the bulk of whom have arrived this year, and settled in the capital Sanaa, followed by the southern hub of Aden.

Geddo says there may be as many as 1,600 unregistered refugees, according to a rough estimate compiled by an international non-governmental organisation.

"There is a fear of insecurity. When people are traumatised they may well fear that if the government found out that they went to another country they may be persecuted," he said.

Geddo said UNHCR was planning a programme to encourage unregistered refugees to come forward and seek assistance.

The agency can provide identification letters, blankets, kitchen utensils and cash assistance for the most vulnerable, as well as help admitting their children to schools in Yemen.

"They do not need to fear being returned to Syria. Yemen is a very generous host country and they will be granted asylum until they need it ... We have to make it clear they have nothing to lose and only to gain by coming forward."

More than 2.5 million Syrians have fled their homes since the outbreak of civil war in March 2011, taking refuge in neighboring countries or within Syria itself. According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), over 600,000 have fled to immediate neighbours Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan and Iraq. Yet the real number of Syrians refugees in these countries is much higher – perhaps double UNHCR statistics, which only record those officially registered as refugees.