Authorities in Aden have temporarily suspended the expansion of a security campaign targeting gatherings of African migrants to the rest of the city’s districts after carrying it out in Sheikh Othman and Mansoura, because designated detention facilities could not accommodate the number of detainees. The local authority is working to find larger sites and arrange new procedures before resuming the campaign, alongside tighter monitoring of entry points to Yemen’s southern interim capital.
Within days, the campaign changed the scene around Cairo Roundabout in Sheikh Othman, where dozens of migrants had slept on the grass before dispersing in the morning through markets and streets in search of daily work to provide them with food, such as carrying goods, transporting shoppers’ purchases on handcarts and washing cars.
The sides of the roundabout were soon almost empty of the migrants whose presence passers-by had become accustomed to. Mansour Mohammed Sufyan, a resident of Sheikh Othman, said migrants usually gathered near Cairo Roundabout and around al-Aidarous Mosque. He added that during the latest campaign he saw large numbers of them surrounded by security vehicles and personnel before being taken from the area.
When Sufyan returned to Cairo Market the following evening, he said he saw “a small place resembling a detention facility where detainees were being gathered before being moved again”, without knowing where they had been taken. By the time of publication, the authorities had not announced where those detained in the campaign were being held or what procedures would be taken against them.
Sheikh Othman is one of Aden’s busiest districts for trade and transport, with popular markets and bus stations receiving travellers arriving in and departing from the city. Around the shops and crowded roads, some migrants rely on occasional work carrying loads, washing cars and transporting the purchases of market visitors.
Security campaign begins in Sheikh Othman
Aden’s National Security Forces announced on 29 September 2026 the launch of a campaign in Sheikh Othman’s neighbourhoods and streets. They said its objectives included curbing begging, organising what they described as random activity, and monitoring gatherings of African migrants.
Captain Nasser al-Dahshali, commander of the Eighth Sector, stressed in a security statement the need to deal with cases requiring health or social care in accordance with legal procedures and in co-ordination with the relevant authorities. The statement did not specify the number of people covered by the campaign or the nature of the care to be provided to those in need.
Imad Haidara Halboob, director of the media office of Aden’s National Security Forces, said the plan had been designed from the outset to cover the city’s eight districts. He said implementation began in Sheikh Othman and then extended to Mansoura before expansion to the other districts was temporarily suspended after it became clear that the designated detention sites could not accommodate the number of detainees.
Halboob added that the local authority was working to identify larger sites and establish better arrangements in preparation for completing the campaign. He linked its timing to what he called “security precautions during this period to prevent any disorder”, noting that instructions had been issued to tighten monitoring of Aden’s entry points and roads leading to it from other governorates, including Shabwah, in order to limit the arrival of more migrants.
Halboob did not specify when the campaign would resume in the remaining districts. By the time of publication, no official statement had announced the number of detainees or where they were being held, and the authorities had not announced any decision to deport them outside Yemen. Aden’s authorities have previously conducted campaigns to detain African migrants.
Previous detention campaigns in Aden
In 2017, a facility in al-Buraiqah district was used as a detention centre for hundreds of migrants, asylum seekers and refugees arriving from Ethiopia, Somalia and Eritrea. Human Rights Watch documented deportations affecting some of them at the time. The presence of Africans in Aden is not limited to recent arrivals; the city is also home to refugees and asylum seekers, some of whom have lived there for decades.
Somalis accounted for 63% of the total, while Ethiopians made up 26.5%. The UNHCR says non-Somalis wishing to apply for asylum in the Aden area can contact its office to complete registration. Somalis can register through centres in Aden’s al-Basateen neighbourhood, the city of Mukalla and Kharaz camp in Lahj governorate.
The movement of migrants from the Horn of Africa to Yemen’s shores has continued despite the war that has gripped the country for more than a decade and the humanitarian and economic crisis it has caused. Migrants reaching Aden’s streets are part of a broader route that begins on the opposite shore of the Gulf of Aden.
Migrant arrivals through Yemen continue
In August 2026, the International Organization for Migration recorded 11,397 migrants entering Yemen, a 17% decrease from July of the same year, when 13,687 migrant arrivals were recorded. Djibouti accounted for 63% of the arrivals recorded by the organisation, with most reaching the shores of Abyan and Taiz governorates.
Another 33% arrived from Somalia through Shabwah governorate, while 4% came from Oman. Men accounted for 63% of arrivals, compared with 18% women and 19% children. These figures are not a comprehensive count of everyone entering Yemeni territory, as they are based on monitoring carried out by the organisation’s teams at specific points they can access in several governorates.
Data for the second quarter of 2026 indicates that Saudi Arabia was the intended destination for about 80% of migrant movements recorded by the International Organization for Migration, while 11% said Yemen was their final destination. In an assessment conducted in April and May 2026, the organisation estimated that 44,050 migrants were present in 12 governorates under the control of the Yemeni government.
About 32% of them were concentrated in Marib, 28% in Shabwah and 17% in Aden. The assessment reflects the number of migrants present when it was conducted, while the August data measures arrivals over a single month. Among the migrants whose journey stopped in Aden was 30-year-old Hussein Adel, who arrived in the city on a boat carrying African migrants.
During an interview in February 2026, months after his arrival, he said he had fled “death and hunger” but faced harsh living conditions in Aden. Hussein was staying on the roof of a relative’s house in al-Basateen and spent his days moving around the city in search of occasional work. He also used a crutch because of an injury he said he sustained during the journey to Yemen.
Refugee families who settled in Aden decades ago live in al-Basateen alongside recent migrants, displaced people and local residents. Some residents rely on daily work in construction, carrying loads and washing cars, while women work cleaning homes or preparing and selling food. Al-Basateen is a residential neighbourhood, not an official refugee camp.
Support services for refugees and migrants
Kharaz camp in Lahj governorate is Yemen’s only refugee camp and hosts about 9,490 refugees and asylum seekers. Services provided there include education, healthcare, water, sanitation and shelter. The International Organization for Migration runs a migrant response centre in Aden, along with two others in Marib and Sana’a.
These centres assist vulnerable cases and stranded migrants and refer them to available services. The organisation also runs a voluntary humanitarian return programme for those wishing to return to their countries. The authorities are preparing to complete the campaign after providing larger sites and arranging detention procedures, while continuing to tighten monitoring of Aden’s entry points and the roads leading to it.
Meanwhile, the latest International Organization for Migration data shows that migrants continue to arrive on Yemen’s shores, while the destinations of those moved from Cairo Roundabout and the streets of Mansoura, and the procedures planned for them, have not yet been announced.
