Lankans in Yemen saved by the bell

by Manjula Fernando

Nasim, first thanked God before reciting a stream of names whom he felt grateful towards, for his life as well as his wife's.

The 70-year-old is one of the first Sri Lankan evacuees from Yemen, those among the fortunate to escape the fighting and aerial bombardments in Sanaa in the war ravaged middle eastern state. The UN humanitarian officials on Friday warned the Yemeni crisis was getting worse by the hour with over 540 people killed in recent fighting.

The conflict in Yemen has escalated with Houthi rebels fighting against government forces, threatened to take control of the country. President Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi had fled to Saudi Arabia for protection.

The group of 29 Lankan men and women including Nasim arrived at the Bandaranaike International Airport on Wednesday night on board a Qatar Airways flight QR 656 to be received by Deputy Foreign Minister Ajith P. Perera, Foreign Employment Minister Thalatha Athukorala and a throng of media personnel.

Dedicated

Nasim was domiciled in Yemen for 15 years with his wife and son. "Living there was peaceful and quiet until recently when the air raids began in Sanaa", a visibly shaken Nasim told the Sunday Observer from the airport, soon after his arrival in Colombo.

"We decided to return in the nick of time and I heard that there are long queues for fuel now, aerial bombings have destroyed fuel bowsers also."

"After the air raids started we spent the nights in underground bunkers," he explained.

The apartment building where he lived had an underground bunker, but the other Sri Lankans were not so privileged, and had to join some of the friends to spend the night in safety.

There are still (by Saturday) 20 - 30 people stranded in Yemen, according to the SLBFE Deputy General Manager and spokesperson Mangala Randeniya. Twenty-nine of those who arrived in Sri Lanka along with 16 others were evacuated from Sanaa on Monday and arrived in the African state of Djibouti across the Red sea on Tuesday.

The 16 other evacuees were accommodated in a hotel in Djibouti and arrived in Colombo on Friday night. Sri Lanka Ambassador based in Nigeria Krishnamoorthy travelled to Djibouti to receive the group and facilitate their air passage to Colombo, a spokesperson for the Foreign Ministry said.

The operation to take them out of Yemen was coordinated by the Foreign Ministry, Chinese Government, Saudi Government with the assistance of the Automotive Machinery Trading Centre (AMTC) the sole distributors in Yemen for Toyota vehicles. The Company which employed about 25 Sri Lankans had facilitated the land passage for all 45 to the port city of Hodeida.

"It was not easy. The company people were worried about our safety on the way and when the departure was delayed we all panicked," Saman Mendis (44) who worked for AMTC said, adding that he never hoped that they would manage to leave like this. "We took such a risk to brave the journey from Sanaa to Hodeida."

The airfare for them were partly funded by the Foreign Employment Bureau (SLBFE) and when the funds with the Ambassador were not enough for all 29 of them to buy air tickets, some in the group had chipped in.

According to the Foreign Employment Bureau, two men which included a person who worked as a pilot in Yemen and five others have come to Sri Lanka earlier.

The five were brought down with the intervention of the Foreign Ministry and their travel was funded by the SLBFE. The Charge d' Affaires at the Sri Lankan mission in Oman travelled to Yemeni provincial capital Mukallah to take the five Lankans out.

The pilot having been unsuccessful in taking out some of the Sri Lankans with him explained to the SLBFE the situation in Yemen and the need to evacuate the people there. "These efforts too helped us expedite the evacuation process," the SLBFE spokesperson said.

"Till about two weeks ago the grocery shops remained opened but when the Saudi Government started air raids, everything changed," Nasim said. The city was overrun by the anti-government Houthi rebels but there had not been any fierce fighting before.

The air raids by Saudi-led coalition of Arab states began on March 26 to chase off the rebel forces from the capital. Nasim's 40-year-old son is among the only three Sri Lankans left in Sanaa.

"He refused to leave Yemen saying that, it was not proper to leave the country at a time like this."

"He is young and strong but at my age I could not take that chance," he said, trying to fend off his emotions. Nasim too was working for AMTC. When the situation became volatile, we informed our company management of our desire to go home.

They liaised with the Foreign Ministry in Sri Lanka to send us home. "The foreigners are not allowed to leave the city citing security concerns, it was quite a task to get the clearance to travel to Hodeida," he said.

Violence

Erhard Balendram from Dematagoda had worked only two months at a Restaurant in Sanaa when the violence began and he was compelled to take the difficult decision to return. He just started to live his dream.

"I was working at a Yemani restaurant with another Sri Lankan. A friend of mine worked at the AMTC. He helped us get back, if not for his help we would still be stranded there.

"On the day of our departure, all 45 of us got to AMTC office. There was a bus and two vans to transport us. Initially we were scheduled to depart at 2.00 pm, but we had to wait for security clearance. Finally around 4.00pm, the AMTC officials who worked so hard to ensure a safe passage for us said it was alright to leave."

Not known to them, the Ambassador in Nigeria from his end was pulling all the strings to get the 45 of them out of Yemen in one piece and hence the ground clearance. They had to pass six to 10 checkpoints on their eight hour journey to the Port city and, in a volatile situation as such, one step in the wrong direction would mean the end of all. It was nearly midnight when the group got off from Hodeida. "We stayed with the AMTC branch office there. We had to wait till 12 noon the next day to get on board the Chinese vessel," Erhard said.

It was a blessing that the group made it to the Port in time to get on board the Chinese ship which was re-directed on a humanitarian mission to Yemen from their anti piracy escort operations off Somali sea.

Foreigners

Nasim said the best strategy to pull out the people who are still stranded there is through the Saudi border since the other routes are very difficult to manage. Some of the remaining Sri Lankans have opted to stay on, despite safety warnings by the Foreign Ministry and the SLBFE.

SLBFE spokesperson said so far 52 Sri Lankans have been evacuated from Yemen and the Foreign Employment Minister approved US $ 34,000 to fund airfare, expenses for facilitating land passage and accommodation for those in need.

Out of the 52 Lankans brought down from Yemen, 35 were not registered with the SLBFE, but on humanitarian grounds the minister had approved state sponsorship for everyone in need."Their travel was funded by the Foreign Workers Welfare Fund and we should be grateful for the registered expatriate workers who contribute to keep the fund rich for the sake of all," Randeniya added.