United Kingdom / Yemeni Jews

Persecuted Yemeni Jews To Be Given Sanctuary in Britain
By Jerome Taylor
The Independent, April 14, 2010
"Britain is on the verge of signing a secret deal to allow a small number of Yemeni Jews facing severe persecution in their home country to move to the UK, The Independent has learnt. The tentative agreement is the product of months of painstaking negotiations between the Foreign Office and the Yemeni authorities, who have struggled to contain rising anti-Jewish sentiment as they battle a sectarian insurgency in the north and growing al-Qa'ida-inspired militancy. An estimated 20 or 30 families living in the northern town of Raida already have relatives living in the UK. They have been desperately trying to seek sanctuary here amid rising hate attacks, murders and forced conversions by the hostile Shia al-Houthi tribe, which dominates Yemen's mountainous border with Saudi Arabia. Assaults against the country's small Jewish community intensified to such a level last year that the US State Department organised a series of airlifts to evacuate more than 100 Jews with connections to the Yemeni community already living in America.
Until now, Britain has always refused to offer a similar blanket refugee status to those with British relatives. Many Yemeni families in the UK have subsequently complained that their relatives' visa requests had been regularly turned down or held up. But under the terms of the new negotiations, Raida Jews with British connections will be invited to apply for a three-month visitor visa to see their relatives in Britain. There is still a group of 70 Jews living in the capital Sana'a under government protection, but they are not included in the negotiations with Britain. Once out of the country, the Raida Jews will be able to claim refugee status, although each application will still be considered on an individual basis, unlike in the US where all Yemeni Jews are guaranteed asylum. Spiriting the families out of the country on a visitor visa is important because it frees the Yemeni authorities from embarrassment and allows them to avoid claims that they can no longer protect the country's Jewish population, who have lived in the Arabian Peninsula for more than 2,000 years. [...]"