Around 400 Yemenis travelled to Russia, chasing the promise of a salary that could give them a better future, according to a BBC investigation of Russia’s recruitment of foreign fighters.
The investigation by Nawal Al Maghafi found that “within weeks, those young Yemenis had vanished into a war they did not understand, in a country whose language they didn’t speak, to one of the world’s most brutal frontlines” and “Some have died on the frontline, others are now prisoners of war”.
Al Maghafi sited Ali Alsabahi, founder of the International Federation of Yemeni Migrants (based in the Netherlands), who said that he had been receiving pleas daily, calls and videos asking for rescue, and that he had forwarded them to officials, to the Yemeni foreign ministry, and to Yemen Embassy in Russia.
Alsabahi said that more than 24 Yemenis are known to have been killed in Russia, and others remain missing.