COMMON ANALYSIS
Last update: June 2022

This sub-profile refers to persons who belong to low status occupational minorities. These minorities include the Gabooye (Madhibaan and Muse Diriye sub-groups), the Yibir, the Tumal, the Galgale, the Gahayle, the Yahar, the Ugaadhyahan/Ugaaryahan, the Eyle, the Hawle and the Hawrasame.

COI summary

Gabooye

The Gabooye (Madhibaan together with Muse Diriye) are the most numerous occupational minority in Somaliland. They also live, in smaller numbers, in Ethiopia, Puntland and southern Somalia. Traditionally, Madhibaan and Muse Diriye were hunters, shoemakers, tanners, well diggers and water carriers for their hosts. Muse Diriye also traditionally worked as basket makers. [Targeting, 4.1., pp. 61-62]

Members of the Gabooye enjoy limited protection throughout Somalia. They are considered ‘unclean’ by dominant clans and experience discrimination as a consequence. State institutions, which are dominated by majority group members, do not offer protection to Gabooye for injustices and violations they experienced (including sexual violence, looting or physical assaults), especially in Somaliland and southern Somalia. Only in Puntland, occupational minorities such as the Gabooye, enjoy more rights and are in a slightly better position vis-à-vis majority group members. Furthermore, the Gabooye lack access to formal education (except Islamic learning), to economic resources and are largely politically excluded. Intermarriages between them and members of majority groups are shunned. [Targeting, 4.1., p. 63]

Yibir

The Yibir or Anaas reside mainly in Somaliland and in the Somali region of Ethiopia. A few are also living in central and southern Somalia. A significant number of Yibir have become full-time beggars. Some Yibir succeeded in finding manual work in urban centers. They mainly worked as wandering sorcerers and leather workers. They also have a reputation as fortune tellers. [Targeting, 4.1., p. 63]

They were among the most socially excluded groups in Somalia. Throughout Somalia, they have limited to no access to social services, including education and healthcare. In rural areas, Yibir often are exposed to abuse, exploitation and suffer from extreme poverty. Like other minority group members, they lack protection by state or non-state authorities. [Targeting, 4.1., p. 64]

Tumal

The Tumal were traditionally blacksmiths and carpenters and they live throughout Somalia, from north to south. They face discrimination along the same lines as Madhibaan and Muse Diriye. Only in Puntland, Tumal are in a somewhat stronger position, but still they are not considered as equal to the locally dominant members of the Majeerteen clan.[Targeting, 4.1., p. 65]

Other low status occupational groups

The smaller groups of the Ugaadhyahan/Ugaaryahan, the Eyle, the Hawle and the Hawrasame are also marginalised and harassed (e.g., insulted or side-lined when competing for jobs; bullied out of their properties) by majority group members and lack protection. For the Galgale, the Gahayle and the Yahar there was no available information on their treatment in the reference period. [Targeting, 4.1., p. 65]

Conclusions and guidance 

   Do the acts qualify as persecution under Article 9 QD?   

Some acts reported to be committed against individuals under this profile are of such severe nature that they amount to persecution (e.g. physical and sexual violence). When the acts in question are (solely) of discriminatory nature, the individual assessment of whether discrimination could amount to persecution should take into account the severity and/or repetitiveness of the acts or whether they occur as an accumulation of various measures.

   What is the level of risk of persecution (well-founded fear)?   

The individual assessment of whether there is a reasonable degree of likelihood for the applicant to face persecution in the whole of Somalia, including South-Central Somalia, Puntland and Somaliland, should take into account risk-impacting circumstances, such as: gender, their area of origin and the local clan dynamics, financial situation, etc.

   Are the reasons for persecution falling within Article 10 QD (nexus)?   

Where well-founded fear of persecution is substantiated, available information indicates that persecution of this profile may be for reasons of race and/or membership of particular social group, based on an innate characteristic or common background which cannot be changed (the family they are born into/inherited occupational status) and distinct identity in Somalia, as they are perceived as different in the Somali society.