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From eastern Ethiopia to the Saudi border stretches the “eastern route,” one of the region’s busiest and most dangerous migration corridors, where thousands of migrants cross the sea and Yemen in search of work in Saudi Arabia, traveling on overcrowded boats and along roads run by smuggling networks before reaching a border associated with violence and detention or returning by sea to Djibouti after the journey fails.
Most of them set out from the Oromia, Amhara and Tigray regions of Ethiopia, gathering in Dire Dawa and Harar, before the route branches toward Obock in Djibouti or Bosaso in Somalia.
From there, boats cross to the coasts of Abyan, Taiz and Shabwa, beginning another stage inside Yemen that stretches through Ataq, Marib, Radaa, Sanaa and Saada before an attempt to cross into Saudi Arabia.
And recorded the International Organization for Migration the entry of 13,339 migrants into Yemen during June 2026, bringing the total number of recorded movements during the first half of the year to 97,174.
These figures show that Yemen, despite conflict, division and humanitarian crisis, remains a central stop on the route between the Horn of Africa and Saudi Arabia, and a place where migration, smuggling, forced labor, detention and return routes intersect.
From Ethiopia to the crossing shores
Ethiopians make up the overwhelming majority of those using the route, especially those coming from Oromia, Amhara and Tigray, while the data shows a smaller Somali presence. Departures are linked to scarce job opportunities, rising living costs, conflict and local unrest.
In an investigation published by The New Humanitarian, which specializes in covering humanitarian crises, on May 26, 2025, Ethiopian worker Yasin Omar said the absence of work had robbed people of hope and pushed him to undertake the journey despite its risks. The investigation also presented other cases of people who left Amhara because of fighting or were drawn by the gap between Ethiopian wages and the income they expected in Saudi Arabia.
Migrants head to Dire Dawa and Harar, which serve as hubs for gathering and connecting with brokers, before the route branches toward Obock in Djibouti or through Somaliland to Bosaso in Puntland.
A report by the Mixed Migration Centre, a research and data center affiliated with the Danish Refugee Council, issued in December 2024, states that Obock and Bosaso are the two main maritime departure points, while data from June 2026 links the Djibouti route to the coasts of Abyan and Taiz, and the Somali route to Shabwa.
On the way through Somaliland, migrants are passed from one smuggler to another until they reach Bosaso. Yasin Omar recounted that his group was transported in overcrowded trucks and held in Las Anod until each family paid about 40,000 Ethiopian birr roughly $300 at the time of the journey before being taken to the coast and boarding a boat carrying about 70 migrants.
The duration of the sea crossing varies depending on the departure point, the weather and routes used to avoid patrols, as the route from Obock is shorter than the crossing from Bosaso through the Gulf of Aden. Incidents in recent years show boats carrying between 150 and more than 300 people, amid overcrowding and shortages of water, food and lifesaving equipment.
In March 2025, announced the International Organization for Migration the disappearance of more than 180 migrants after two boats capsized off Yemen. Then, a boat carrying between 150 and 200 people sank off Shaqra in Abyan in August, while the capsizing of a boat carrying more than 300 people off Obock in March 2026 killed nine and left at least 45 missing. The organization recorded 922 deaths or disappearances on the eastern route during 2025, compared with 558 in 2024.
Disembarkation points shift with changes in monitoring and security campaigns. After arrivals from Somalia were concentrated in Shabwa in August 2025, the share of those departing from Djibouti rose in the final quarter and they headed to Taiz and Abyan. Then, during the first half of 2026, Abyan became the largest gateway for arrivals from Djibouti, while Shabwa remained the gateway for the Somali route.
Yemen’s coast redistributes the journey
Migrants are concentrated inside Yemen in Marib, Shabwa and Aden, alongside Sanaa and Saada as two main stations for those stranded and those heading toward the border.
Data from the International Organization for Migration shows three corridors beginning in Abyan, Taiz and Shabwa, then heading north toward Marib or Sanaa and Saada, with one branch passing through Radaa in Al Bayda province.
The Abyan route begins in Ahwar, Shaqra and the coastal strip around Khanfar and Zinjibar, where the first landing and gathering points are concentrated, before groups move deeper into the province and then northward.
The organization’s data records the presence of migrants in the districts of Lawdar, Mudiya and Al Mahfad, which lie toward Al Bayda and Shabwa. Lawdar also saw a security operation against a smuggler in June 2026, indicating its use within Abyan as a route toward neighboring provinces.
The Taiz route is centered around Dhubab and Bab al-Mandab, then most likely extends through Mokha, Taiz, Ibb, Dhamar and Sanaa to Amran or Saada. The Shabwa corridor has the clearest documentation: arrivals from Bosaso reach the Radum coast, then move toward Ataq and from there to Marib or Radaa.
And documented Mwatana for Human Rights in December 2025 that soldiers from Yemen’s internationally recognized government prevented about 150 Ethiopian migrants from continuing from Kida in Radum district to Ataq, and forced them onto a military truck in June 2024, before opening fire on migrants who tried to flee it.
It also documented an Ethiopian migrant being injured by a land mine while traveling from Ataq to Radaa in search of work on qat farms, a stop where some migrants pause to earn money before continuing toward Sanaa and Saada.
The Mixed Migration Centre report showed that 95 percent of the Ethiopian migrants included in its study used a smuggler during the journey to Yemen, and that arranging border crossings was the main service most of them received.
After arriving in Yemen, migrants move among drivers, brokers and local smugglers, and some stop in Ataq, Marib or Radaa to look for a new transporter or work to finance the next stage.
The average amount paid by participants in the study was about $300, with payments mostly tied to the sea crossing to Yemen, while the total cost to the Saudi border remains variable because of transport fees, extortion, detention and forced labor.
There is also no fixed average for the duration of the route. Yasin Omar said his crossing through Yemen took a full month, punctuated by repeated demands for money and forcing those unable to pay to work or carry equipment.
And documented Mwatana 70 incidents of abuse affecting 488 migrants between December 2023 and the end of November 2025, including detention, abduction, disappearance, forced labor, sexual violence, shootings and land mines.
The organization attributed the incidents to multiple parties, including the Houthis, the Saudi border guard, the Southern Transitional Council, Yemen’s internationally recognized government, and smuggling and human trafficking networks.
Saada: the border gateway and breaking point
Saada represents the main hub before the Saudi border, and includes gathering and detention sites that precede attempts to cross. Munabbih, Al Raqw, Baqim and Wadi al-Abu are among the route’s most prominent stops, where guides lead groups of migrants through mountains and valleys after additional payments are made or after periods of detention and waiting.
Human Rights Watch identified the Al Thabit and Al Raqw camps as gathering sites before the border, and migrants it interviewed said Houthi forces controlled entry and exit, demanded money, or transferred those unable to pay to detention centers.
On April 28, 2025, US airstrikes destroyed a warehouse holding African migrants in the city of Saada. Mwatana for Human Rights said the bombing killed 68 migrants and injured 47, and that guards opened fire on detainees who tried to flee.
On the border side, said Human Rights Watch in August 2023 that Saudi border guards killed hundreds of Ethiopian migrants and asylum-seekers with gunfire and explosive weapons between March 2022 and June 2023, and identified through satellite imagery eight burial sites near Al Raqw containing 287 visible graves.
Mwatana documented in May 2024 that three Ethiopian migrants, including two children, were wounded by shrapnel from two shells in Wadi al-Abu in Baqim district.
Failed crossing attempts end in injury, death, detention or retreat toward Sanaa and Marib. In October 2025, the International Organization for Migration recorded migrants returning from Saada because of escalating violence, from where different return routes begin.
The first route is official deportation from Saudi Arabia to the country of origin. The estimated Regional Migrant Response Plan for 2026 that the kingdom forcibly returned 95,100 Ethiopian migrants to their country during 2025, bringing the recorded cumulative total to about 750,400 cases.
As for those stranded inside Yemen, some head south toward Lahj and Ras al-Arah, then cross the sea to Obock in Djibouti. The plan recorded 20,500 spontaneous returns from Yemen during 2025, compared with 16,000 in 2024. During the first three months of 2026, 5,128 migrants left for Djibouti, 99 percent of them departing from Ras al-Arah.
Others return through the Voluntary Humanitarian Return program run by the International Organization for Migration, alongside the UN refugee agency’s program designated for Somali refugees. And returned the organization about 4,800 migrants by air during 2024, then facilitated the return of 160 vulnerable migrants between April and November 2025.
The capacity of these programs remains limited compared with the number of those stranded. The response plan estimated that 132,300 migrants were inside Yemen by the end of 2025, including more than 1,800 who had been waiting weeks or months for a chance to return.
Thus, Saada is transformed from the last stop before Saudi Arabia into the beginning of another road that sends the migrant back toward Sanaa, Marib and Lahj, then to the African coast from which the journey began.