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UNHCR is troubled by continued deportation of Somalis from Saudi Arabia
The United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR) is concerned about the reports of continuing deportation of Somali refugees and asylum seekers from Saudi Arabia to Mogadishu.
UNHCR points out that fighting between government forces and Al Shabaab militias is continuing and escalated this week leaving dozens of civilians dead and scores of others wounded.
Somali refugees
Citing its local partners in Mogadishu, the agency estimates that 1,000 Somalis were deported from Saudi Arabia in June alone, while the total so far reported for July is already estimated to be close to 1,000 people.
UNHCR spokesperson Melissa Fleming says that the majority of the people deported from Saudi Arabia say they fled Somalia due to conflict, indiscriminate violence and human rights abuses.
"The majority of deportees are women, including some extremely vulnerable cases, such as one of a split refugee family - a young woman, who fled the violence, as she told us, in Somalia in 2007 and was detained on her way to the market in Saudi Arabia and deported back to Mogadishu with her two very young children."
Melissa Fleming says that UNHCR considers such deportations with its guidelines on international protection needs of Somali refugees and asylum seekers.
Given the deadly violence in Mogadishu, the agency is urging the Saudi authorities to refrain from future deportations on humanitarian grounds.
Dianne Penn, United Nations Radio.
Duration: 1'39"
