Youths in Yemen: Caught Between the Conflict and the Issue of Migration

Haneen Al-Wahsh – Sawt Al-Amal (Voice of Hope)

A UN Population Fund (UNFPA) report from January to March 2024 highlights Yemen’s ongoing humanitarian crisis, nine years into the conflict. Over half the population—around 18.2 million people—need aid in 2024. Recent regional conflicts have worsened the situation, adding to existing risks.

A UNDP report reveals that roughly 250,000 Yemenis have died, either directly from fighting or indirectly due to lack of food and healthcare. The conflict has devastated infrastructure and reversed two decades of progress, setting the country back 20 years.

A University of Denver study, cited in the report, shows the conflict has severely hampered Yemen’s progress towards the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030.

Displacement and emigration, both internal and external, are surging due to violence, infrastructure collapse, soaring unemployment, and widespread poverty. UN reports indicate 83% of Yemenis live in multidimensional poverty.

A UN report, “Roadmap to Recovery: Tackling Poverty Amid Ongoing Conflict in Yemen – February 2024,” reveals that rural poverty (89%) is far higher than urban poverty (68.9%). Al-Dhalea and Al-Bayda Governorates have the highest multidimensional poverty rates. Experts estimate that 40% of the multidimensionally poor live in Taiz, due to its large population, making it a likely hotspot for emigration.

Emigration and the Conflict’s Consequences

The 2014 conflict, with its devastating consequences—famine, disease, and illiteracy—forced many Yemenis, particularly young people, to emigrate for safety and stability. What began as a temporary solution is increasingly becoming permanent as the conflict drags on and conditions worsen.

Yemeni emigration takes various forms, from legal residency in other countries to fleeing the conflict as refugees. However, worsening economic conditions make permanent emigration increasingly likely.

Official and unofficial estimates of Yemeni youth emigration are lacking. The issue often surfaces only during seasonal tragedies, such as the deaths of Yemeni migrants—drowning, starvation at European borders, or detention, as seen in Libya two years ago.

Lawyer and human rights researcher, Mohammed Al-Ariqi, attributes the rise in young Yemeni emigration to security, economic, and social factors. He explains, “Deteriorating security, and ongoing conflicts, have exacerbated the economic and humanitarian crisis. These complex circumstances have driven many young Yemenis to emigrate in search of better lives.”

He stresses that the economic crisis has led to high unemployment, deteriorated basic services, currency devaluation, and a worsening cost of living, eroding young people’s ability to meet their basic needs.

He also points to social factors, including marginalization and deprivation—lack of education and job opportunities—as well as societal breakdown, with the conflict causing family disintegration and increased crime and violence.

Mohammed Faisal, 20 years old, recounts how the conflict forced his family and many others to leave their village in Jabal Habashi, west of Taiz, for areas outside the conflict zone, lacking healthcare and education. This led him to drop out of school to support his family, whose livelihood depends on farming.

Mohammed Faisal was fifteen when he was forced to flee his village and his only school. His father, killed by a landmine, was gone. His childhood ended; he became a young man working daily labor to feed his four sisters and mother.

When the fighting in his village, on the front lines, quieted down, he was forced to sell their farmland cheaply to fund his move to Saudi Arabia, where he took a low-paying job in a mall.

Mohammed says, “I thought internal displacement taught me about loneliness, but when I got to Saudi Arabia, I really understood what being far from home meant, what it meant to be forced by the conflict to give up on my education.”

On the other side of the world, Munir Ahmad (a pseudonym, a young Yemeni migrant in Egypt) explains that the conflict and his father’s political activities forced them to emigrate from Yemen and start a new life in Cairo, which he describes as “a nightmare no less painful than the conflict back home.”

Munir says that after graduating from university, he dreamed of serving his country, but now he’s unemployed in Cairo, dependent on his father.

Migrant Talent

Experts emphasize that the emigration of young people negatively impacts the country’s economic and social future, as most emigrants are young and skilled.

Economist Abdul-Rahim Al-Hammadi says, “Young people’s skills are wasted in Yemen, forcing them to emigrate. This poses a serious threat to the country’s future in all aspects, including social stability.”

He describes the country’s situation with the emigration of young people as a dynamo gradually losing its ability to function as it loses power, eventually leading to paralysis and rapid death.

He acknowledges that remittances from emigrants currently boost the national economy, but warns of the future risk of increased poverty, as many families depend on the income of emigrant youth.

Al-Hammadi warns against family breakdown as a consequence of youth emigration, particularly for those who leave illegally, leaving behind incomplete families. He adds, “The emigration of young people puts a tremendous strain on the elderly and children.”

Solutions

The youth emigration crisis stems from complex and intertwined factors, with unemployment exacerbated by the conflict being a major cause, according to our field research.

Al-Hammadi suggests solutions, including rebuilding destroyed infrastructure, which would create many jobs and improve living conditions for young people, provided it’s accompanied by economic improvements and a rise in the value of the local currency.

Journalist Abdul-Malik Mohammed believes that building the capacity of young people and including them in decision-making centers is crucial to curb the emigration of skilled youth and other negative phenomena, such as youth dropping out of school.

He says, “Solving the crisis requires joint efforts from the international community, the Yemeni government, and civil society. This crisis wasn’t a sudden event; it’s the result of many complexities and accumulated issues, including young people’s loss of trust in the government and society.”

Young people surveyed agree that ending the conflict is the first and only solution to the emigration crisis, along with investing in education and vocational training to equip youth with the skills needed to find jobs and achieve economic empowerment.