Yemen prisoner swap expected to start by next week, says ICRC

The humanitarian group is handling the logistics, safety and transport side of the agreement

Fabrizio Carboni, centre, ICRC Regional Director for the Near and Middle East, with Hans Grundberg, right, UN Special Envoy for Yemen, and Swiss Ambassador Thomas Gruber. AP

Yemen’s prisoner swap exchange is expected to start by next week, a top official from the International Committee of the Red Cross, who is overseeing the deal, told The National on Monday.

For nearly two weeks, talks between Yemen’s internationally-recognised government and Houthi rebels took place in Switzerland, led by Hans Grundberg, the UN's envoy for Yemen, and the ICRC.

The deal clears the way for the release of 887 detainees related to the war from all sides by the end of Ramadan, in mid to late-April.

“We committed ourselves to try to make this release happen within three weeks of the signature. So by the end of next week, it should start happening,” Fabrizio Carboni, the ICRC's Near and Middle East regional director, told The National.

The humanitarian official said a concrete date is hard to pin down to avoid disappointment and to not “raise expectations and then not meet the deadline.”

“Everybody is mobilised to make this release a success which takes place as soon as possible. So I can say that the ICRC is hopeful by the end of next week that movement will start to happen with this,” Mr Carboni said.

The meeting in the Swiss city of Bern last week was the seventh aimed at finding a deal on prisoner exchanges initially agreed in Sweden five years ago.

Under that deal, the sides agreed “to release all prisoners, detainees, missing persons, arbitrarily detained and forcibly disappeared persons, and those under house arrest” held in connection with the conflict, “without any exceptions or conditions”.

ICRC's role in the prisoner release process

The ICRC is handling the logistics, safety and transport side of the agreement.

“We agree that the people are going to be released to express the intention to go back home because often it means crossing the front line crossing the border. We need to also see if the detainees are in good health” and able to travel, Mr Carboni said.

The official said often some detainees “have reason to believe that their physical integrity could be at risk.”

“I'm not saying that is the case here, but its something we need to verify with the detainees,” he said.

The humanitarian group must make sure the planes have the approval to land and take off from specific locations by local authorities.

“You need to transport and sometimes parties put conditions, for instance in the previous release, we needed to have all the planes taking off at the same time,” Mr Carboni said.

He said there are many detainees from both sides who did not make it on the list of exchange this time around.

“We really hope that we can resume negotiations soon to continue releasing people. We also know that there are many families who have no news of their loved ones because they're still detained, because they are wounded or died in battle,” he said.

Officials from both sides said this stage will be followed by other releases.

The UN said those who participated in Bern “agreed to reconvene in mid-May to discuss more releases.”