In the early hours of Monday 28 April, a US airstrike is reported to have struck a detention facility in Yemen’s northern Sa’ada Governorate, killing dozens of migrants confined in the building. This is not the first time that a detention centre holding migrants has been struck in Yemen: another facility within the same compound was struck in 2022 leaving more than 90 dead. The bombing is also reminiscent of the deadly 2019 air strike on a migrant detention centre in Libya, which resulted in nearly 50 deaths.
According to Houthi-run media (al-Masirah), at least 68 African migrants were killed, and a further 47 injured in a US airstrike on a detention facility in Sa’ada city just before 5am local time on 28 April. Although there does not appear to have been an independent confirmation of these numbers, the IOM noted that “many migrants are believed to have been killed or injured.”
Graphic footage shared by al-Masirah, and verified by Reuters and Human Rights Watch, shows what appears to be dead bodies and injured persons lying amidst concrete, steel beams, and corrugated iron. Rescue workers, amongst them Red Crescent workers, can be seen searching for survivors through the rubble.
The facility that was struck appears to be the Sa’ada City Remand Prison, which Houthi media claimed was holding 115 migrants at the time of the strike. The prison is located in the same compound as another detention facility which was struck by a Saudi airstrike in January 2022. In this previous strike, more than 90 people were killed and over 230 injured, prompting widespread international condemnation. Responding to that attack, the Spokesman for the UN Secretary General António Guterres said: “ The Secretary-General reminds all parties that attacks directed against civilians and civilian infrastructure are prohibited by international humanitarian law. He further reminds all parties of their obligations under international humanitarian law to ensure that civilians are protected against the dangers arising from military operations, adhering to the principles of proportionality, distinction and precaution.”
According to the Washington Post, the compound’s purpose cannot be independently verified. In 2022, UN representatives reported that while it had formerly served as a barracks, it no longer showed any signs of serving a military function (although Google Maps does continue to pinpoint a “military base” within the compound, as of 6 May 2025). While this was confirmed to the Washington Post by one human rights researcher, another claimed that the detention of migrants was being used as a “front” for the site.
Although the US has neither confirmed nor denied involvement in the attack, analysis carried out by the New York Times concluded that at least three US-made GBU-39 bombs were used in the attack, suggesting that the US likely carried out the bombing.
Detained in the Line of Fire
This airstrike was part of a much broader escalation in Yemen, where near daily airstrikes have been carried out by the US since 15 March 2025. Dubbed “Operation Rough Rider,” the military campaign was ordered by the Trump administration in retaliation against the Houthi’s targeting of Red Sea shipping vessels.
However, as rights bodies such as Human Rights Watch have reported, the airstrikes have been causing extensive civilian harm “likely killing and injuring hundreds of civilians.” Within the US, Democratic lawmakers have expressed serious concern: “The reported high civilian casualty numbers from U.S. strikes in Yemen demonstrate a serious disregard for civilian life, and call into question this administration’s ability to conduct military operations in accordance with U.S. best practices for civilian harm mitigation and international law.”
The bombing of Sa’ada City Remand Prison is the latest in a series of bombings that have occurred in or near immigration detention centres in recent years. In 2019, the Tajoura Detention Centre in Libya was bombed, resulting in the deaths of more than 50 migrant detainees. Although the Libyan National Army was accused of carrying out the bombing and deliberately targeting unarmed civilians, many questions remain about who exactly was involved.
More recently, after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, migrant detention centres found themselves perilously close to combat zones. Despite this, detainees were initially forced to remain locked up, which led many observers–including the Global Detention Project–to raise questions about the need to develop better protections for detained migrants and refugees in conflict zones.
“The bombing of the detention centre in Yemen reminds us of the extreme vulnerability of immigration detainees, who are already amongst the world’s more defenceless and forgotten people,” says Michael Flynn, director of the GDP. “As we have been stressing since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, there is an urgent need to assess gaps in humanitarian protections for these people and to propose solutions, including pressing for the immediate release of all detainees who are close to combat zones of any kind.”
There are important legal standards protecting civilians during situations of warfare. As Action on Armed Violence notes: “From a legal standpoint, the implications are significant. International humanitarian law obliges all parties to an armed conflict to distinguish at all times between civilians and combatants, and to take all feasible precautions to avoid or minimise civilian harm. The use of explosive weapons in populated areas, particularly in known detention facilities, carries a high risk of indiscriminate impact. Failing to take all reasonable precautions before an attack may amount to a violation of international law. Deliberate or reckless attacks on civilian infrastructure can constitute war crimes.”
The Wider Migration Context
Yemen is a key transit country for migrants and asylum seekers–the vast majority from Ethiopia–seeking to reach Saudi Arabia. Known as the “Eastern Route,” thousands travel from the Horn of Africa across the Gulf of Aden to Yemen. As the GDP has previously reported, Houthis are often involved in smuggling non-nationals from Yemen to Saudi Arabia, but in the face of increasing pressure from Saudi authorities to stop irregular migration they routinely confine asylum seekers and migrants in a host of ad hoc detention facilities. Human Rights Watch has extensively documented gross abuses against detainees in these settings.
The treatment that migrants face in the country has repeatedly been condemned by rights groups as well as the wider international community. In 2024, during the fourth cycle of the Universal Periodic Review, numerous recommendations were made regarding the treatment of non-nationals in the country:
132.172 Provide adequate human rights training to border police and immigration officials to combat discrimination and violence against migrants, especially women (Portugal) (SUPPORTED)
133.32 Put an immediate end to arbitrary detention, enforced disappearance and forced displacement, which particularly affect migrants, as well as to torture and ill-treatment, and release those arbitrarily detained and also reveal the fate of missing persons (Switzerland) (NOTED)
133.76 Investigate alleged killings of migrants and other violations occurring at the border between Yemen and Saudi Arabia (Luxembourg) (NOTED)
