Standing at the Crossroads Migrants, Refugees Land at an African Way Station

OBOCK, Djibouti—Nestled on a stretch of coastline where Africa’s Horn faces the Arabian peninsula, this dusty seaside town has earned a dubious distinction over the past year, becoming one of the few places where refugees fleeing war pass economic migrants speeding the opposite direction—straight into the firefight. By day, ships carrying scores of Yemeni refugees from conflict between Houthi rebels and the Saudi-backed government dock at Obock’s small port. After dark, African migrants pile into smaller fishing boats heading to Yemen and, if they make it, jobs cleaning houses or driving taxis in Saudi Arabia. The numbers traveling in both directions through this sleepy, sunbaked town are rising as Yemen’s war sparks a refugee exodus and a migrant opportunity. On the outskirts of Obock, a center to assist migrants—mostly Ethiopians from rural areas stricken by poverty and drought—stands opposite a refugee camp housing more than 3,000 Yemenis, a 10th of the total the government says have transited through Djibouti. A view of Djibouti, the industrial port capital that is home to French and American military bases, along with serving as a gateway to the Middle East. Neither refugees nor migrants want to stay in an outpost that feels like the end of the earth, where drab cement houses and a mosque look onto a long trash-strewn beach. Yemeni refugees with means immediately head to the capital, hoping to continue to the U.S. or Europe. The African migrants sail to Yemen as soon as they can. The travelers are transforming the economy and the rhythm of life here. Aid agencies say escalating conflict is drawing more Yemeni refugees and convincing desperate migrants the chaos will ease their path to economic security in Saudi Arabia. saudi arabia yemen Red Sea San’a Obock djibouti somalia 200 miles

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Obock’s intersection shows how Djibouti has quietly emerged as a crossroads for those escaping poverty and conflict. The town’s transformation shows how the swell of displaced people is lapping at the world’s most remote corners, plugging isolated regions into the global economy and sometimes recalibrating the identity of a nation.

“It’s extraordinary that a lot of people are trying to flee Yemen and a lot of people are trying to get into Yemen at the same time,” said Tom Kelly, U.S. ambassador to Djibouti. “It’s just a very dramatic illustration of the ongoing migration and refugee crises besetting the world.”

Djibouti, a hot, barren former French colony of 900,000 desperately poor people, has long served as a transit hub. Located on the trade route between the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, it houses U.S. and French military bases.

The strategic location has also made it a nexus of people fleeing in every direction. A surge in arrivals from Yemen last year lifted the country’s formal refugee population—which also includes refugees from former regional conflicts— to about 22,000, according to the United Nations’ refugee agency, though an official with the interior ministry said they believed the actual number was closer to 40,000.

A group of young Ethiopian migrants walk through the desert on the last part of their journey before crossing by boat to Yemen from Obock, Djibouti, in January.

A mother who fled the war in Yemen with her three children comforts her sick baby who can’t get access to medicine in the refugee camp in Obock in January. Obock’s refugee camp is filled with people who couldn’t get jobs in the capital or ran out of money. Gassar Gohory, a 34-year-old psychology teacher from Yemen’s second city, Aden, arrived nine months ago and feels trapped. “It’s not good here,” he said, but he is out of money, and going back to Yemen isn’t an option: “Snipers in Aden killed many of my friends.” The refugees have been good for the town’s economy. Many came with savings and rented houses or opened shops and restaurants. Some young Yemeni men rent motorized rickshaws and ferry people between the camp and the center of town for a small fee. Aid money has arrived in the refugees’ wake. The United Nations’ refugee agency allocates about 30% of its aid in a country like Djibouti to improving the local community, said Abdulrahman Mnawar, a field officer with the agency in Obock. U.N. funds, for example, have paid for hospital improvements, he said.

As the sun sets, migrants make their way over a hill to meet the boats that will take them to Yemen from outside Obock.

Men watch as a boat is repaired on the beach in the port of Obock. The migrants—Ethiopians and a few Somalis and Eritreans—come over land, braving hundreds of miles of desert to get here. Many arrive in organized groups, while some young men travel alone, carrying a water bottle and tossing a T-shirt over the head to keep off the blazing sun. Migrants have trickled through here in small numbers for many years, but the numbers have jumped to 50 a day as the war has intensified, the Obock office of the International Organization for Migration said. An estimated 100,000 such migrants cross Djibouti each year, said the Danish Refugee Council, which works with migrants and refugees in the country. At Obock’s port, some migrants can be seen relaxing under acacia trees as they wait for boats. Some said they left because of poverty, others because of government repression. A young Ethiopian man named Tajir Ibrahim said he had gone to Saudi Arabia once and returned home two years ago when Ethiopia’s president put out an appeal to the diaspora. But he failed to find work back in Ethiopia, and after he used his savings to build a house, the police destroyed the building after telling him the government owned the land. “I lost my money, my house and there was nothing left,” Mr. Ibrahim said. He paid a smuggler to get him to Yemen and planned to pick up odd jobs after that, or beg if needed. It is what he did last time. He said he is aware of the fighting in Yemen, but that he expects to get through because the war “is not about us.” A 24-year-old mother of three named Hayat Mohammed said there is no money for her in Ethiopia and therefore no future for her children. She said the risk is worth it. Her children are back in Ethiopia and she said she would send money home to them. A boy flies his homemade kite over the roofs of tents that house Yemeni refugees who fled to Obock. “I am not afraid. I heard that in Yemen there are people getting killed. But I am going anyway,” Ms. Mohammed said. Areas of instability often become stops on the illegal migrant trail. Libya became a key transit point for Africans trying to reach Europe partly because of the insecurity there. But in Yemen, migrants are running into a well-sealed Saudi border and end up stranded in Yemen; often beaten by smugglers or turned over to traffickers. “The moment they embark on those boats and they cross the Gulf of Aden, it goes out of their hands,” said the IOM’s field officer, Ali Aljefri. The increase in migrants has meant more money for local fishermen who transport migrants and smugglers, but the local government says they are a serious drain on resources—they have nothing and they defecate on the beach. Plenty of migrants run out money and get stuck in Obock, sleeping in the streets and taking odd jobs in exchange for food. A woman serves breakfast from her shop while her children sit close by on Obock’s main street. Djibouti’s stability in a restive region has long made it a natural place for people to seek sanctuary, but the dramatic rise in numbers is bringing new strains. The capital city, also named Djibouti, is overwhelmed by migrants and refugees seeking work. While the government says it is committed to stopping the illegal migrants, people stream across the country undisturbed, many dying of thirst or heatstroke en route. Some migrants said they passed bodies of those who didn’t make it as they walked to Obock. “Djibouti is not a country with extreme riches. We don’t have petrol. We have truly, budgetary restrictions even though we want to give aid to refugees,” said Sirag Omar Abdoulkader, secretary-general at the interior ministry. One of Obock’s newest restaurants—run by a Yemeni refugee who serves grilled fish by the port—exemplifies the vast waiting room the town has become. The owner says he tried to persuade his Ethiopian workers to stay in Djibouti and avoid the war in his homeland but they are determined to go. “They tell me, ‘There is a war. Wait until it stops,’ ”said 23-year-old Ethiopian Abdi Ibrahim, who works at the restaurant. Barely surviving in Obock, he makes less than $2 a day and sleeps on the ground outside a local mosque. “I’ll go anyway. I will face my destiny.”

Men spend their evening fishing in the port city and capital of Djibouti.