Since a devastating war began in Yemen in 2015, causing the displacement of 3 million people, the United States has taken in just 50 Yemeni refugees.
Despite the deteriorating conditions in Yemen, where citizens must endure outbreaks of famine and disease amid the fighting, the number of Yemeni refugees resettled in the US has fallen almost to zero since Trump entered office.
Just two Yemeni refugees were resettled in the US in fiscal year 2018 and one has been resettled so far in fiscal year 2019, according to state department statistics.
This is no coincidence, considering Trump has dismantled the US refugee program, setting a record low ceiling of 30,000 refugees in total for fiscal year 2019. Advocates say this move has guaranteed that a backlog of refugees in war-torn countries such as Yemen will only become more clogged.
“You can’t overstate the impact on Yemenis seeking safety in the United States. It’s become almost impossible,” said Nazanin Ash, vice-president of public policy and advocacy for the International Rescue Committee. “You have extraordinary levels of humanitarian suffering in Yemen. People can’t leave, and aid can’t get in.”
As the US continues to support its close ally Saudi Arabia in the war, selling weapons and providing intelligence, civilians in Yemen are at constant risk of airstrikes and street bombings. With the war showing little sign of slowing down, the halt of the US refugee program – which had typically taken in the highest number of refugees in the world – is devastating.
To claim refugee status with the UN, a person must be in a state that is not their country of origin. For Yemenis, the journey out is difficult. Tens of thousands have fled to neighboring countries such as Djibouti, Ethiopia or Sudan, traveling for days, making dangerous and expensive trips across the sea.
For the few who make it out, the conditions they face in their first country of refuge can be tough – some live in tent cities and finding employment is impossible. But the situation at home has only been getting worse. The war has created what is considered the world’s worst humanitarian crisis, with an estimated 22 million people in need of aid, 14 million of whom face famine.
Zak Albadyih, 24, is one of the lucky few. For him resettling in the United States meant he could restart his life.
What was supposed to be a two-week trip in Egypt to get a student visa turned into two years of waiting. While Albadyih was in Egypt, Saudi Arabia officially declared war on the Iran-backed Houthi rebels and began airstrikes in Yemen. His family told him going home was too dangerous, but in Egypt his life couldn’t move forward.
“There was no support, nowhere to study, no future,” Albadyih said. “I was completely lost.”
Albadyih applied to be a refugee. About a year and a half later, after an interview with the UN, he learned he would be resettled in the United States.
Albadyih arrived in the US on 24 January 2017, just four days after Trump’s inauguration as president. He moved to Denver, and has lived there since, juggling a job as a stylist and a restaurant waiter while also taking classes for a degree in marketing at a local college.
He was one of just 21 Yemeni refugees resettled in the US that year.
“I feel so happy and blessed. I feel lucky,” said Albadyih, who is now a naturalized American citizen.
While Albadyih appreciates life in the US, his parents and siblings are still in Sana’a. He’s constantly worried about their safety but knows the refugee process he went through isn’t a viable option for them now.
“There are so many Yemeni refugees all around Egypt, Malaysia and so many places that they’re not accepting,” Albadyih said. “Then they wait for 10 years, and there’s nothing. There’s no future … I don’t recommend that to my family at all.”
Many other Yemenis in America face the same predicament. While getting close family, like children or spouses, into the US was always a long process with heavy vetting, it was once possible to bring loved ones. Now under Trump’s travel ban, which restricts immigration from Muslim-majority countries including Yemen, traditional paths to immigrating have been virtually cut off.
This has devastated the Yemeni American community. Many have family members staying in countries like Djibouti as they wait indefinitely for US visas.
“There is not one Yemeni that does not have a family member that is directly impacted [by the war],” said Debbie Almontaser, board secretary of the Yemeni American Merchants Association, a Yemeni American advocacy group in New York City.
Labib Nasher, 45, who lives in New York and works in marketing, said it’s rare to go a day without hearing from members of his family and friends who are still in Yemen – which has suffered more than 17,600 civilian casualties since March 2015 – and are trying to leave the country.
“I never lived in this country as a normal person. I always have deep sadness in my heart, always thinking about my people,” Nasher said. “I was lucky to get here, to be safe, but what about the others?”
Nasher, who was an activist for peace in his country, successfully received political asylum – which is separate from the refugee process and for which only those physically present in the United States can apply – in February. He first arrived in the US in December 2015, six months after he fled Yemen to Jordan, to attend a conference sponsored by the World Bank.
Though Nasher’s story had a happier ending than many who hope to leave Yemen – his children, a 12-year-old daughter and nine-year-old son, will soon be joining him in New York – the pain of finding a place of refuge has left scars.
“It’s a horrible thing, when you’re stuck somewhere and you don’t find anywhere to escape to,” Nasher said. ‘You’re not a human being any more. Nobody wants you, even allow you to live in their country. It’s a really hard feeling.”