International Workers’ Day – The Yemeni Worker Between the Anvil of Prisons and the Hammer of Levies

International Workers’ Day – May 1st

While workers around the world celebrate International Workers’ Day in honor of their contributions to development and construction, May 1st arrives for the Yemeni worker amidst the most heinous forms of systematic oppression practiced by the Houthi militia. These practices have gone beyond cutting off livelihoods to stripping freedoms and lives, turning the existence of the working class into a nightmare of repression and hunger.

The Yemeni Center for the Rehabilitation of Victims of Violations and Torture (Will and Hope), through its close monitoring of the tragic reality in militia-controlled areas, emphasizes the following:

• Systematic Detention and Torture: Thousands of workers and employees remain languishing in the militia’s dark prisons, where they are subjected to the harshest forms of physical torture and enforced disappearance. Their only “crime” is demanding their legal rights, a safe working environment, or refusing to comply with policies of repression and intimidation.

• Illegal Confiscation Policies: The Houthi militia’s systematic confiscation of private property and commercial institutions has caused hundreds of thousands of workers to lose their livelihoods. This has pushed their families to the brink of starvation after these facilities were converted into tools to fund the militia’s war machine.

• Financial Terrorism and the “Khums” Policy: The militia has practiced unprecedented financial strangulation by imposing exorbitant taxes and looting funds under the so-called “Khums Law” (a 20% tax), in addition to arbitrary levies. This has led to the paralysis of the private sector, the bankruptcy of companies, and the forced dismissal of their staff.

• Looting of Salaries and Forced Labor: The Yemeni Center for the Rehabilitation of Victims of Violations and Torture confirms that the continued looting of employees’ salaries for years, and the imposition of forced labor under the threat of dismissal or arrest, represents a “starvation war crime.” It aims to transform the Yemeni individual from a productive worker into a beggar living under the weight of poverty, while transforming national institutions into environments that serve sectarian ideology instead of national production.

In the face of these crimes, the Yemeni Center for the Rehabilitation of Victims of Violations and Torture issues this humanitarian and human rights appeal to the international community and the International Labour Organization (ILO). We demand an end to the silence regarding these violations and call for serious pressure on the Houthi militia to stop criminal levies, immediately release kidnapped workers, and ensure the return of looted property to its rightful owners.

The Center also calls upon all human rights organizations and bodies to document these economic and physical violations as crimes against humanity that are not subject to a statute of limitations, and to prosecute the perpetrators internationally.

The Yemeni Center for the Rehabilitation of Victims of Violations and Torture (Will and Hope) declares its absolute solidarity with every Yemeni worker whose rights have been stolen or who has been disappeared behind bars. We affirm that the dawn of justice is inevitably coming.

Long live the free and dignified Yemeni worker… and shame to all those who violate human rights.

Issued by: The Yemeni Center for the Rehabilitation of Victims of Violations and Torture (Will and Hope) Date: May 1, 2026