First they came for work, then they were arrested, reportedly abused and thrown in jail. Now, Ethiopian and Eritrean asylum seekers are living on the streets of Yemen, with nowhere to go and little assistance.

Last year, the refugees staged an 11-month demonstration in front of the UN refugee office in the Yemeni capital, but when they refused to accept a reported $400 payment from the UNHCR to leave, police arrested and imprisoned them.

This week, many of those Ethiopians, Eritreans and Somalis who were imprisoned now find themselves living on the streets. In response, they took to the Human Rights Ministry in Hadda to protest the continuing use of what they called “excessive force” from security forces trying to remove them through violence.

Earlier, in order to force them out of their jail cells, security forces reported used tear gas and rubber bullets, former prisoners said, adding that in some case police threw tear gas canisters into cells to disorient them, before dragging them out and beating them with steel rods.

The refugees told Bikyamasr.com via telephone that the violence has been “brutal” and they simply want “the opportunity to live in peace and be given refugee status.”

Unfortunately for the Ethiopians, most of whom are Christian, it is not the first time they face hardship in Yemen.

They often talk of the mistrust and mistreatment meted out against their community, which is estimated to be in the hundreds of thousands in Yemen.

“Most Yemenis look at us with disgust as we are not like them. Many Ethiopians are unable to find work or even rent a house for we are discriminated against. I know a lot of us who chose to convert to Islam for a chance of a better life…and even then our skin color differentiates us from them [the Yemeni],” Moulook Dawit told Bikyamasr.com.

Others speak of social stigma and often abuse when they choose to openly embrace their Christianity, with men being beaten up and women harassed by Islamist groups.

“Yemenis call us names, refusing to ever socialize with us as if we were diseased. Our daughters are shunned away from school and our wives suffer daily verbal abuse. Going to the Police is useless as we will get automatically blame,” said one guard.

Even in death, Ethiopians are treated differently, with the government refusing to allow them to be buried in the capital, Sana’a, as it argues that its cemeteries are strictly Muslim.

Several Yemeni rights activists have said that they will work at mending the ties between Yemeni Muslims and Ethiopian Christians as they say they wanted Yemen to become a civil state where citizens’ rights, no matter their faith would be respected.

BM