U.S. strike on Yemen migrant centre may constitute humanitarian 'violation': Amnesty

Amnesty International urges U.S. to investigate deadly strike on Yemen migrant facility, raising concerns about international law violations.

Rights group Amnesty International urged the United States on Monday (May 19, 2025) to investigate possible violations of international law in a deadly strike on a migrant detention facility in rebel-held Yemen.

Last month’s attack, which prompted international alarm and was part of the U.S. bombardment campaign against the Iran-backed Houthis, killed 68 people held at a centre for irregular migrants in Saada, the rebel authorities said at the time.

Agnes Callamard, Amnesty’s secretary-general, said that “the U.S. attacked a well-known detention facility where the Houthis have been detaining migrants.”

“The dead were all migrants from African countries,” the Houthis had said.

To Ms. Callamard, “the major loss of civilian life in this attack raises serious concerns about whether the U.S. complied with its obligations under international humanitarian law.”

“The U.S. must conduct a prompt, independent and transparent investigation into this air strike,” she added.

A U.S. defence official had told AFP in the aftermath of the strike that the military launched “battle-damage assessment and inquiry” into “claims of civilian casualties related to the U.S. strikes in Yemen”.