HADHRAMAUT, Yemen 

Scores of refugees from Somalia were detained in Yemen’s southern Hadhramaut province on Wednesday, according to the local authorities. 

According to a statement issued by Hadhramaut police, 200 undocumented refugees were detained while en route to the province’s Brom Mayfa district.

“The refugees, including a number of women and children, reached Yemen by sea,” the police statement read.

According to local security sources, the detainees have since been sent to a camp for African refugees in Yemen’s southern Shabwa province.

On Tuesday, the International Organization for Migration announced that 133 refugees had voluntarily returned from Yemen to their homes in Somalia.

Last month, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees said the number of African refugees to have come to Yemen since the beginning of 2017 had surpassed 30,000.

African refugees, mainly from nearby Somalia and Ethiopia, often stay in Yemen for brief periods before attempting to cross into oil-rich Saudi Arabia.

*Reporting by Safiye Karabacak; Writing by Sena Guler