NYN | News
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has continued its efforts to support the voluntary repatriation of Somali refugees from Yemen to their home country, completing a new airlift—the fourth this year.
On Wednesday, UNHCR announced the departure of 148 Somali refugees from Aden International Airport bound for Somalia, as part of the agency’s Assisted Spontaneous Return (ASR) program for Somali refugees.
UNHCR’s representative in Yemen, Marin Din Kajdomcaj, said on his account on the “X” platform that the organization has supported 661 Somali refugees this year who chose to return home voluntarily, through four flights and one sea journey.
The voluntary return program has been ongoing since its launch in September 2017, having assisted around 8,555 Somali refugees to return safely by the end of 2024, including 1,115 refugees in the past year alone.
Yemen currently hosts more than 61,000 refugees and asylum seekers, most of them from Somalia, according to recent UN reports.
