HUMAN WRONGS WATCH

“I told my mother I’d find work in the Gulf States and send money home,” she said. “I truly believed that with all my heart.”

But hope quickly gave way to danger. The girls were separated by smugglers. Sennait was placed in a smaller group and walked for four weeks through the desert toward Bossaso, a port city where migrants gather to continue their journey by sea.

There, her path took another dark turn. She was captured by traffickers who demanded more money.

Sennait couldn’t afford the amount they demanded. When she begged for mercy, she was assaulted and subjected to sexual violence.

Like many others on the Horn of Africa to Yemen route, Sennait became a target of traffickers who prey on migrants in vulnerable situations.

These networks rely on violence, extortion, and fear to control those in search of safety.

Amid the abuse, one smuggler who spoke the same language showed her kindness and helped her board a boat to Yemen. There, she reunited with her friends.

“We cried when we saw each other,” Sennait recounts. “But none of us spoke about what had happened. We were too afraid of what might come next.”

After two cramped days at sea, they finally reached the coast. The smugglers rocked the boat violently, forcing people to jump off.

Disoriented and alone in the desert, the group wandered until they came across Yemeni villagers who offered them food and clothing. Until that moment, they were convinced they had reached Saudi Arabia.

They kept walking, unsure of where they were headed. Eventually, a Yemeni man stopped, picked them up, and drove them to Aden. He gave them some money and wished them well.

Upon arrival a woman who had once taken the same journey offered them shelter. After three days, she helped arrange their transport to Sana’a, hoping they might find work or support.

“Once we got to Sana’a, my friend and I split up to look for jobs,” says Sennait. “I met a man who introduced me to an Ethiopian woman who gave me a place to stay and work in her shop.”

Months passed. Then the woman noticed something – a swelling in Sennait’s belly. Confused, Sennait agreed to a hospital visit.

She was six months pregnant.

“I burst into tears,” she says. “I didn’t even know I was pregnant. I had no idea what was going to happen next.”

Her friend helped her move to her sister’s house to rest, but the financial pressure kept building. Eventually, the family brought her to the International Organization for Migration (IOM).

“When I arrived there, I finally let everything out – the pain, the fear, everything I had kept inside since I left home,” she explains.

Sennait gave birth safely at IOM’s Migrant Response Point in Sana’a. Today, she and her baby continue to receive medical care, counselling, and vital support, helping them live with dignity.

But without identification documents, her child’s access to education and basic rights remains uncertain.

The IOM centre in Sana’a provides lifesaving assistance to migrants in vulnerable situations. It offers a space for healing, recovery, and the possibility of returning home. That is what Sennait now hopes to do through IOM’s Voluntary Humanitarian Return programme.

“If someone told me they were planning this journey, I’d beg them to reconsider,” she says. “It’s not worth the fear, the pain, or everything I lost.”

IOM’s protection services in Sana’a are supported by EU Humanitarian Aid (ECHO) and the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO).

*The name has been changed to protect their identity 

This story was written Sahar Al-Shawafi, Graphic Design Assistant, and Ayoub Al-Ahmadi, Senior Translation Assistant, with IOM Yemen. 

*SOURCE: The International Organization for Migration (IOM). Go to ORIGINAL: https://storyteller.iom.int/stories/her-feet-reached-yemen-her-heart-never-rested

2025 Human Wrongs Watch