The US Department of Homeland Security on Friday announced it was ending Temporary Protected Status for Yemen, concluding the country is safe enough for refugees to return to.
Temporary Protected Status, or TPS, provides protection from deportation as well as the ability to work in the US to citizens of countries experiencing conflict or other crises.
“After reviewing conditions in the country and consulting with appropriate US government agencies, I determined that Yemen no longer meets the law’s requirements to be designated for Temporary Protected Status,” DHS Secretary Kristi Noem said in a statement.
She added that allowing TPS beneficiaries to remain in the US was “contrary to our national interest”, and that TPS was designed to be temporary. She said President Donald Trump's administration was returning it to its original intent.
“We are prioritising our national security interests and putting America first,” she said.
It is unclear how many people will be affected by the end of the TPS designation. The announcement follows similar ones for Venezuela, Afghanistan, Ethiopia and Syria.
Yemen was originally designated for TPS in 2015 amid the conflict between the central government and the Houthi rebels, who took the capital Sanaa in 2014. Hundreds of thousands of people have died in the conflict, many due to starvation.
A UN-brokered truce in 2022 largely stopped the fighting between the Houthis and government forces, though tension spilt into conflict on Yemen's ruling council in December.
