Yemen, one of the poorest countries in the Middle East, is heavily dependent on international aid by donor countries and international organizations.

The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) has historically enjoyed strong ties with the Yemeni government in terms of cooperation on the refugee issue.

As the country slips closer to civil war following the Houthi coup and the fleeing of Abdu Rabu Mansour Hadi to Aden, as well as the closing of many Western and regional embassies, UNHCR continues to function in Yemen.

The Yemen Times sat down with Johannes van der Klaauw, the UN humanitarian coordinator for Yemen, as well as the UNHCR representative, to assess what impact the political turmoil has had on the UN’s work in the country.

Let’s start with the latest developments: The ongoing conflicts in Yemen must hamper your humanitarian efforts. How do you manage to continue reaching out to people in need of your help, especially internally displaced persons (IDPs)?
We are here to address the humanitarian need of the population. The working environment for us is very challenging and very complex because in order to deliver humanitarian aid and reach out to the population and the people who are in need of assistance, we need to work with partners and local administrations. At the moment, we have a situation where we have a dysfunctional government, if at all, and we have Ansar Allah [Houthis] here in Sana'a who became in charge of security.
We as humanitarian actors, we work with officially established administration. But they are at the moment destabilized and we have to deal with that and provide the population with aid. The current political crises, as such, unfortunately have not generated many humanitarian needs because the country already has humanitarian needs. Sixty percent of the Yemeni population is in need of humanitarian support, education, medical care and food.
The current political impasse makes it difficult [for us] to act but we can only hope that the current political situation will be solved. We need to be prepared as a humanitarian community for the worst so we have a contingency plan to be able to access the affected population in war-torn areas in Marib, Al-Baida, Amran, Hodeida. Hopefully nothing bad happens in Taiz and Ibb.
Apart from the political crisis, the country is on the verge of economic meltdown because we all know the government no longer has enough money to pay salaries of the public sectors employees. This is a very worrying matter, especially after the World Bank has suspended its operation here as it supports the government in terms of health, the education sector and the Social Welfare Fund.

Is there any coordination between you and the Houthis in terms of delivering humanitarian aid to people in need?
As a humanitarian community, we need to work with established government structures so we still have our relations with the line [essential] ministries, education, health and social affairs. Following the resignation of the Cabinet, we still work with deputy ministers. I recently signed a memo of understanding with the undersecretary of the Ministry of Health.
Ansar Allah are somehow involved in the issue of security in Sana’a and if we need to pass by checkpoints and secure freedom of movement for our staff then we need to communicate with those who are in charge of safety and security, so we talk to them.
As humanitarian actors we are neutral and impartial and in order to be able to deliver humanitarian aid, we talk with those who are in charge to ease delivery.

Staff for most international organizations have been evacuated. What is the status of UN employees in Yemen?
Our staff has not been evacuated. The UN humanitarian community has temporarily removed some international staff out of the country as a precautionary measure, but let’s not forget that most humanitarian workers within the UN and international NGOs are Yemenis and they are the backbone of our work. They are excellent and have the capacity to continue our work.
International staff is now working from a distance and we will bring them back as soon as the political crisis is solved. I want to emphasize that the humanitarian community is committed to staying here to meet humanitarian needs, we just need the environment to be safe and secure. We do not want Yemen to be abandoned.

What impact has the departure of embassies from the capital had on assistance?
The donor community has said that this will not impact its commitment to fund the humanitarian programs because humanitarian aid by the donors are not conditioned. Developmental aid by the donors including good governance and respect of human rights can not be assured at the moment and they have frozen this aid, but the humanitarian assistance which addresses life-saving measures and protection, will continue.
We have video conferences with donors in the capitals of Europe—we had a video conference last week from London, Amman and Brussels. We are reaching out not to the traditional donors: We have a message for the GCC countries because they have suspended their support for Yemen in infrastructure, budgetary and other finance matters.
This is a big problem because Yemen relies on that assistance, but at least they still continue their humanitarian support. Saudi Arabia, for instance, decided to give food aid of $54 million a few months ago.  

As of July 2014, more than 334,000 people were registered as internally displaced in the north as a result of ongoing conflicts. Have you been able to assist them, and if so, what kind of assistance have they have been granted?
We have seen ongoing conflict in the north since 2004. We have seen displacement in Al-Jawf, Al-Baida, Shabwa and Abyan governorates. Even if the displaced return, as in Abyan, there are still needs to be addressed. Their homes have been destroyed and the schools are not functioning, so we as a humanitarian community coordinate with the local networks to help us more quickly see where the problems are.
We have provided people with food, non-food items, shelters, medical assistance and schooling for children who have been out of school.
The figure you mentioned is mostly in the governorates of Hajja—namely in Harath district—Amran, Sana'a and Sa’ada.

Every day Yemen receives refugees, mostly from the horn of Africa. Somalis are granted prima facie refugee status by the Yemeni government. Other migrants are not treated as generously; the Yemeni government acknowledges that they are kept in prisons before being departed to their home countries. Do you provide them with any assistance?
Based on the geographic position, Yemen is a transit country for thousands and thousands of people from, Somalia, Ethiopia and Eritrea who leave their country often in pursuit of work in rich Gulf countries. Since this migration movement is not regularized, smugglers and traffickers exploit them, particularity those who take the route from Bab Al-Mandab, where traffickers and smugglers are very active.
They are mostly Ethiopians and some Eritreans. The ongoing number of arrivals in Yemen are of a mixed migration, we indeed have economic migrants, and we have people who flee prosecution and violence, including women who are very vulnerable and need protection.
At UNHCR we try to help people who arrive on Yemeni shores by identifying the refugees among them, the asylum-seekers who seek refugee status, people with medical problems, and to provide those arriving with protection, because they are subject to traffickers exploiting them.
The irregular migrants who try to find their way to GCC countries are documented and the problem facing Yemen is that the government is unable itself to, upon arrival, screen the people of mixed migration flows. Yemen is conscious of its obligations under the international laws it signed to protect refugees.
It has to look after vulnerable migrants, minors and women, but it does not have a system, so we as humanitarian actors, we have set up a system along with international and local partners so those arriving can receive medical support and protection. For undocumented arrivals, UNHCR is not involved in their return; it is the task of the Yemeni government.

There are 9,397 asylum-seekers and most of whom from Ethiopia, representing more than three quarters of new arrivals in the first half of 2014. Have they been granted asylum?
Yemen has a very unique policy towards Somalis, they are granted prima facie refugee status to stay in Yemen, but anyone else, Ethiopians, Iraqis and even Syrians, are required to apply for asylum status and need to go through individual procedures to check their documents and their motives for applying.
Yemen so far does not have a Refugee Status Determination (RSD) system or the capacity to do this mission so we in UNHCR do this work. Yemen is not unique, there are tens and tens of countries which so far do not have a functional  governmental RSD system, so we do this.
If you are Ethiopian, Iraqi, you come to UNHCR in Sana'a or Aden and apply for RSD but this is a long-standing process which might take months because required documents need to be assessed carefully, and most of them have not shown up as they so far do not have all the documents.

As of August 2014, Yemen was granting temporary protection to Syrians, allowing them to access services available to other refugees. Has UNHCR provided them with any assistance?
Syrians have been granted a special policy from the Yemeni government, they do no have to go through RSD procedures because it takes a long time. Instead, they are granted temporary protection so that their children can access education and so they can go to service providers.
This is a very good, commendable decision by the Yemeni government and it shows the hospitality of the Yemeni people, but they must always renew their visa. There are 2,000 registered Syrians who have been granted temporary protection. They are given access to services available, including the freedom of movement, but thousands others who do not have documents are not given this access.   

Has technical support still been extended to the Yemeni government by UNHCR for its efforts at regional coordination and implementation of the Sana'a Declaration?
Yes. As a humanitarian community we still support the Yemeni government in the health and education sectors, as well as with refugees and IDPs.

The UN deals with many troubled areas, such as Iraq, Syria, Libya, and others. Is there anything unique about Yemen—perhaps its strong tribal nature—that makes dealing with the locals different than other conflict-torn places?
Despite Yemen being a poor country, it is the most hospitable. It is the only country in the region that has signed international commitments to protect refugees and asylum seekers, human rights and children’s rights. It takes the responsibility seriously but it does not have the capacities and stability to ensure the implementation of these commitments.


This interview, conducted on March 19, has been edited and condensed.