CHILD BRIDES FROM YEMEN ON OFFER AS WAR RAGES

▶ Profits for middlemen but arranged marriages have often led to suicide

As far as Mubarak is concerned, he is just a middleman satisfying a need. The 41-yearold, a Yemeni refugee, supplies young brides in the country where he now lives, Oman.

The war in his homeland means business has never been better.

“Omani men in Salalah pay good money for one of them,” he said of the southern Oman city where some of the child brides have ended up. “These men are married but want a very young second wife. And on the cheap side,” he said.

The sellers are impoverished families. For 2,500 rials (Dh23,878) one fifth of which involves bribes in Yemen, he can supply a bride, some as young as 15.

“From that amount I pay 1,500 rials to the parents, 500 rials to the authorities in Yemen helping me to get them out and the remainder is my commission. Everyone is happy,” said Mubarak, who would use only his first name.

Contacted by The National, dignitaries in Dhofar, the southern Oman province where the brides cross the border into Oman, admitted it was happening. Police refused to comment. Sources at Oman’s Interior Ministry said that 120 Yemeni women had been documented as marrying citizens in the past three years, but insisted it had all been legitimate.

Unicef told that some Yemeni families had resorted to selling their daughters off to marriage, often while they were still under age. A financial aid programme to help deter parents from doing so has been set up by the UN agency.

“It has a lot to do with poverty and the fact that families are not able to cater to the needs of their daughters,” said Juliette Touma, Unicef’s chief spokeswoman for the Middle East and North Africa.

Nada Foundation, a Yemen sister organisation of Girls not Brides, said that many Yemeni girls smuggled into Oman are being sold as brides across the GCC.

“More than 250 girls have been forcibly married becaue of social reasons or difficult living conditions, most of whom are displaced by war or exploited after the loss of their parents,” said a Nada spokeswoman. They said that six women committed suicide in Yemen last year as a result of forced marriage. A larger number of deaths occur from pregnancy complications.

Oman government officials said about 2,500 were in shelters around the country. Most of them passed through the border at Sarfayt.

“We know about the young brides transported here,” said Sheikh Mansoor Al Shahri, a local tribal leader. “We already reported these activities to the police. That’s all we can do.

“I would not say it is widespread, but it has been happening with alarming frequency since the war started in Yemen.”

A dire economic situation is also fuelling the smuggling of livestock and qat, a highly intoxicating and addictive leaf that is heavily consumed in Yemen. It is illegal in Oman.

Locals in Sarfayt said that illegal trade had increased.

Khalil Al Mahri, 41, an Omani citizen, runs an unlicensed ramshackle restaurant made of logs and palm fronds, just 100 metres across the Oman side of the border. Since opening in February, he said border police let him operate in return for free meals. Smugglers, such as Mubarak, are among his paying customers.

“A lot of good people are turning into thieves just to survive and feed their families. The Yemeni border patrol officers are bribed to let stolen goods out of the country. They don’t ask for business validation or paperwork,” Mr Al Mahri said.

“I have to feed the border police for free not to have me removed. But I make money from people crossing the border. It is not a bad business and I see a lot here that I should not see.”

A little farther away, Belal, a refugee, said he smuggled qat leaves – they grow wild in Yemen – into Oman.

“That border is making money for a lot of people since the civil war started back home. I was a schoolteacher earning an equivalent of 45 rials a month in Aden. Now, my income on a good month is 1,200 Omani rials a month. On a bad month 700 rials. That’s not bad,” he said.

Even with restrictions because of his refugee status, he is able to cross the border with ease.

“I have a passport in another name which I can use any time I want. I use another name here in Oman, which is registered on my refugee card. It is that simple and easy,” he said.

No one at Oman’s Interior Ministry would speak on the record about activities at the border with Yemen.

However, a ministry source maintained that border security and procedures were tight.

Referring to Yemeni women who had married Omani citizens, the source said: “Our records show that they all had legal papers on their residency in Oman before they got married to Omani men. We are not aware of any of them being smuggled in from Yemen.”

Some Yemeni families have sold their daughters off to marriage, often while they are under age