The Saudi–Yemen barrier is a physical barrier

Separation barrier

A separation barrier is a wall or fence constructed to limit the movement of people across a certain line or border, or to separate two populations. These structures vary in placement with regard to international borders and topography...

 constructed by Saudi Arabia

Saudi Arabia

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia , commonly known in British English as Saudi Arabia and in Arabic as as-Sa‘ūdiyyah , is the largest state in Western Asia by land area, constituting the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and the second-largest in the Arab World...

 along part of its 1800 kilometres (1,118.5 mi) border with Yemen

Yemen

The Republic of Yemen , commonly known as Yemen , is a country located in the Middle East, occupying the southwestern to southern end of the Arabian Peninsula. It is bordered by Saudi Arabia to the north, the Red Sea to the west, and Oman to the east....

. It consists of a network of sandbag

Sandbag

A sandbag is a sack made of hessian/burlap, polypropylene or other materials that is filled with sand or soil and used for such purposes as flood control, military fortification, shielding glass windows in war zones and ballast....

s and pipelines, three metres (10 ft) high, filled with concrete

Concrete

Concrete is a composite construction material, composed of cement and other cementitious materials such as fly ash and slag cement, aggregate , water and chemical admixtures.The word concrete comes from the Latin word...

 and fitted with electronic detection equipment.

When construction of the 75 kilometres (46.6 mi) barrier began in September 2003, a fierce dispute with the Yemeni government

Politics of Yemen

Politics of Yemen takes place in a framework of a presidential representative democratic republic, where the President of Yemen is the head of state, while the Prime Minister of Yemen is the head of government...

 erupted. Construction was halted in February 2004 when Saudi Arabia agreed to stop building the barrier after Yemen said the fence violated a border treaty signed in 2000.

To date a reinforced concrete-filled pipeline currently acts as a security barrier along sections of the now fully demarcated border with Yemen.

History and stated purpose

Since the early 1990s perpetrators of terrorist attacks in Saudi Arabia

Insurgency in Saudi Arabia

Terrorism in Saudi Arabia is unleashed by radical Islamic fighters. Their targets include foreign civilians—mainly Westerners affiliated with its oil-based economy—as well as Saudi civilians and security forces. Anti-Western attacks have occurred in Saudi Arabia dating back to 1995.-Background:The...

 have used explosives which originate from Yemen. Saudi Arabia claims the barrier is a necessary tool in protecting the kingdom from terrorism

Terrorism

Terrorism is the systematic use of terror, especially as a means of coercion. In the international community, however, terrorism has no universally agreed, legally binding, criminal law definition...

, preventing the smuggling

Smuggling

Smuggling is the clandestine transportation of goods or persons, such as out of a building, into a prison, or across an international border, in violation of applicable laws or other regulations.There are various motivations to smuggle...

 of illegal weapons and to stem the flow of contraband

Contraband

The word contraband, reported in English since 1529, from Medieval French contrebande "a smuggling," denotes any item which, relating to its nature, is illegal to be possessed or sold....

, including Yemen’s most important unofficial export

Export

The term export is derived from the conceptual meaning as to ship the goods and services out of the port of a country. The seller of such goods and services is referred to as an "exporter" who is based in the country of export whereas the overseas based buyer is referred to as an "importer"...

, qat

Khat

Khat, qat, gat or Waquish Spoken from true Yemeni, is a flowering plant native to tropical East Africa and the Arabian Peninsula....

, a valuable source of income for Yemen's border tribes, which is thought to earn them more than £100m a year, and which is illegal in the kingdom. After more than 65 years of sporadic conflict, Yemen and Saudi Arabia finally agreed on where the border lay culminating in the 2000 Jeddah border treaty, and began marking it with concrete posts.

Saudi Arabia claimed that smugglers provide the weapons used by radical Islamists who operate inside the kingdom and are the source of the explosives used in attacks against civilian targets, such as the 2003 Riyadh compound bombings

Riyadh compound bombings

The Riyadh compound bombings took place on May 12, 2003, in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Altogether, 35 people were killed, and over 160 wounded. A smaller campaign of insurgency in Saudi Arabia had started in November 2000 when car bombings were carried out targeting and killing individual expatriates in...

 which killed 35 and injured over a hundred. There was a strong lack of trust in the Yemeni authorities' ability to arrest infiltrators before they make it into Saudi territory, however a senior Yemeni official claimed that smugglers were using "smart donkeys" which can not only find their way across unaccompanied but can also recognise the uniform of Saudi border guards and avoid them.

In 2008, after starting a new section of barrier in Harad district, the Saudis declared that the barrier was necessary for protecting their borders against an influx of illegal immigrants and against the smuggling of drugs and weapons. It is believed that thousands of Yemenis and Africans have been crossing through into Saudi Arabia daily. Of the untold numbers of Somali and Ethiopian refugees that arrive on the shores of Yemen daily, those who make their way to Saudi Arabia usually travel through the Harad district. Since in Yemen employment prospects are low for migrants, most head to Saudi Arabia or other Gulf states, where the need for menial labor is much greater. In addition to Somalis and Ethiopians, hundreds of Yemeni children have been trafficked through this area in the past decade. In 2007 alone, more than 60,000 Yemenis were deported from Saudi Arabia due to illegal immigration claims.

Yemeni government

Opponents claim the barrier severely restricts the local population, particularly in their ability to travel freely over the border and to access work, thereby undermining their economy

Economy

An economy consists of the economic system of a country or other area; the labor, capital and land resources; and the manufacturing, trade, distribution, and consumption of goods and services of that area...

. The Yemeni government initially opposed the construction which they said violated the 2000 Jeddah border treaty, which provided grazing rights for shepherds in a 13 miles (20.9 km) buffer zone

Buffer zone

A buffer zone is generally a zonal area that lies between two or more other areas , but depending on the type of buffer zone, the reason for it may be to segregate regions or to conjoin them....

 on both sides of the frontier and stipulated that no armed forces

Armed forces

The armed forces of a country are its government-sponsored defense, fighting forces, and organizations. They exist to further the foreign and domestic policies of their governing body, and to defend that body and the nation it represents from external aggressors. In some countries paramilitary...

 be stationed within it. The first 42 kilometres (26.1 mi) stretch of the barrier was erected less than 100 metres from the border line. At the time Talal Anqawi, head of Saudi Arabia's border guard, maintained that the barrier was being constructed inside Saudi territory.

Comparison to Israeli West Bank barrier

In February 2004 The Guardian

The Guardian

The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...

 reported that Yemeni opposition newspapers likened the barrier Saudi Arabia was building to the Israeli West Bank barrier

Israeli West Bank barrier

The Israeli West Bank barrier is a separation barrier being constructed by the State of Israel along and within the West Bank. Upon completion, the barrier’s total length will be approximately...

, while The Independent

The Independent

The Independent is a British national morning newspaper published in London by Independent Print Limited, owned by Alexander Lebedev since 2010. It is nicknamed the Indy, while the Sunday edition, The Independent on Sunday, is the Sindy. Launched in 1986, it is one of the youngest UK national daily...

 headed an article with "Saudi Arabia, one of the most vocal critics in the Arab world of Israel's "security fence" in the West Bank, is quietly emulating the Israeli example by erecting a barrier along its porous border with Yemen".

Head of Saudi Arabia's border guard, Talal Anqawi, dismissed comparisons with Israel's West Bank barrier: "The barrier of pipes and concrete could in no way be called a separation fence. What is being constructed inside our borders with Yemen is a sort of screen ... which aims to prevent infiltration and smuggling," he said. "It does not resemble a wall in any way."

Current status

In February 2004 after extensive Egypt

Egypt

Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...

ian and U.S. diplomatic efforts Saudi Arabia decided to halt the construction of a barrier. Yemen

Yemen

The Republic of Yemen , commonly known as Yemen , is a country located in the Middle East, occupying the southwestern to southern end of the Arabian Peninsula. It is bordered by Saudi Arabia to the north, the Red Sea to the west, and Oman to the east....

 agreed that the two sides would conduct joint patrols and set up security watch towers along the frontier to curb cross-border smuggling and infiltration. However, it was reported in October 2006, after plans were revealed of Saudi plans to build another fence along its border with Iraq that the Saudis have enjoyed "relative success by building a similar, though shorter, security barrier-fence along their southern border with Yemen to cut down on the 400,000 illegal immigrants who cross it every year looking for work in the far more prosperous Saudi state. That fence, Saudi security authorities also believe, has made their efforts to prevent the infiltration of revolutionary Islamists through Yemen far easier." In February 2007 the Arab Times

Arab Times

Arab Times is an English-language newspaper published from Kuwait. Established in February 1977 by Dar Al-Seyassah newspaper which started the weekly Arab Times newspaper and soon transferred it into a daily newspaper with a remarkable role in Kuwait and the Gulf Area.The editor-in-chief of the...

reported that the “Saudis have been quietly pursuing an $8.5 billion project to fence off the full length of its porous border with Yemen for some years”.

In January 2008, Saudi authorities commenced construction of a wall along the border in the Harad district. A local sheikh claimed that erection of the wall broke a Yemeni-Saudi treaty declaring the rights of both Yemeni and Saudi citizens to roam freely across the political border due to their need to cultivate crops and allow their animals to graze. The Marebpress website reported a Yemeni military source as saying that Yemeni border guards tried to prevent the construction, but the Saudis mobilized their military and threatened force if they were unable to commence work on the barriers. Deep tunnels and concrete arches have been constructed and barbed wire has been laid along the frontiers to the south of the Saudi towns of Towal, Masfaq and Khawjarah.

Local sources from Harad stated that over 3,000 tribesmen from villages adjacent to the areas where the new barriers are being built gathered to rally against it, claiming their interests would be harmed by preventing them from crossing to the other side of the border to visit their relatives and cultivate their farms.

In 2009, Saudi Arabia oversaw a project to begin installing an advanced security network along the border and began construction of a barbed wire fence along most of the 1,600-kilometer border to block the flow of thousands of Shi'ite rebels and their supporters from Yemen to the Saudi kingdom.