Some 150 Somalis forcibly returned home by Saudi Arabia

The United Nations High Commission on Refugees estimates that Saudi Arabia repatriated 4,000 Somalis in 2008

At least 150 Somalis forcibly deported from Saudi Arabia have arrived at Mogadishu International Airport, witnesses said Friday

Kamal Hassan, one of the deportees, told reporters that most of the Somalis were captured by Saudi police forces in operations they conducted in Jeddah.

Hassan recounted that he had left Mogadishu heading to Somalia’s semi-autonomous state of Puntland in a bid to travel to Yemen through Djibouti.

He said he had undertaken the perilous trip between Djibouti and Yemen to find work in Saudi Arabia to get a better life than he had in war-torn Somalia. During the trip to Yemen, a number of his colleagues drowned in the sea between Djibouti and Yemen.

Looking haggard and exhausted, Hassan said Somalis in Saudi prisons encounter uncountable problems, indicating a number of Somali young people had been in the prisons for years.

“I am also tortured by Yemen forces in border between Yemen and Saudi Arabia,” he said, with tears gushing from his eyes.

The deported Somalis were captured from different cities in Saudi Arabia, including Damam, Jeddah, Riyadh and Medina, he said.

The deportations come as Al Shabaab, which the U.S. accuses of being Al Qaeda’s proxy in the country, controls large territories in southern and central Somalia and is constantly conducting deadly attacks against government and African Union forces in Mogadishu.

The Saudi Arabian government regularly deports Somalis and other refugees seeking asylum, something about which the United Nations has expressed concern. The United Nations High Commission on Refugees estimates that Saudi Arabia repatriated 4,000 Somalis in 2008.

UNHCR has already called on all nations to stop forcibly deporting Somali asylum seekers whose lives might be in danger.

Source:: www.allheadlinenews.com