Gulf | Yemen

Yemen to give burn victims at Saudi border cash assistance

The Yemeni government will give each of 18 men who were severely burnt in a fire on the border with Saudi Arabia more than Dh5,000 as assistance.

  • By Nasser Arrabyee, Correspondent
  • Published: 20:06 May 9, 2008
  • Gulf News

Sana'a: The Yemeni government will give each of 18 men who were severely burnt in a fire on the border with Saudi Arabia more than Dh5,000 as assistance.

Saudi authorities hunted the men, who were illegal immigrants. Policemen reportedly set fire to the building where they were hiding.

"Today [Friday] we gave each of the three young men who are being treated in Sana'a 300,000 riyals (Dh5,544)," Mohammad Al Mawri, the interior ministry's official responsible for the pay-outs, told Gulf News on Friday.

Today another official from the ministry will pay out the rest of the money to the other 15 men in the coastal province of Hodeidah.

They have recovered well from their burns.

Deported

The men arrived in Hodeidah on April 23, after being deported from Saudi Arabia, which they had entered illegally to find jobs.

They said they had hidden from Saudi police in abandoned shacks in Khamis Mushait. Police looked for them, but when they did not find the men they apparently set fire to the buildings.

Saudi authorities denied that the police had deliberately set fire to the buildings.

Saudi officials said the 18 men were "sifting through a garbage dump" when a fire broke out.

The story was widely reported in the Yemeni media and stirred anger and shock.

Many jobless Yemenis try almost daily to infiltrate neighbouring, wealthy Saudi Arabia to look for jobs.

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