3.9.1. Persons belonging to low status occupational minorities

COMMON ANALYSIS
Last update: October 2025

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 Hawle and the Hawrasame.

For the Galgale, the Gahayle and the Yahar there was no available information on their treatment in the reference period.

Low-status occupational groups in Somalia, are traditionally engaged in crafts like barbering, blacksmithing, and healing. They face widespread discrimination and social exclusion. For the geographical distribution of low-status occupational minorities in Somalia, see Country Focus 2025, 1.4.1.

 Step 1: Do the reported acts amount to persecution?  

Some acts to which individuals belonging to low status occupational minorities could be exposed are of such severe nature that they would amount to persecution. More specifically, members of the Gabooye experience violations, including physical assaults and abuse. Sexual abuse and violence against women and girls belonging to minority groups have been also reported.

The severity and/or repetitiveness of other acts that low status occupational minorities could be subjected to and whether they occur as an accumulation of various measures, should be considered. More specifically, members of these groups are discriminated by other Somalis and regarded as “unclean” by dominant clans and they experience limited access to education, healthcare, employment, and justice. Gabooye lack access to formal education, healthcare and economic resources, are largely politically excluded and intermarriages between them and members of majority groups are shunned. Yibir have limited to no access to education and healthcare and are often exposed to abuse, exploitation, suffering also from extreme poverty. Madhiban experience marginalisation due to their engagement in traditional practices and spiritual services. Lucrative businesses belonging to Tumal have been taken over by dominant groups. The smaller groups of the Ugaadhyahan/Ugaaryahan, 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).

Intermarriage with majority clans is rare, and state institutions offer little protection, especially in southern Somalia and Somaliland. For more information on individuals in mixed marriages, see sub-profile 3.9.5 Individuals in mixed marriages.

Step 2: What is the level of risk of persecution?  

The individual assessment of whether there is a reasonable degree of likelihood for members of low status occupational minorities, in the whole of Somalia, including South-Central Somalia, Puntland and Somaliland, to face persecution should take into account risk-impacting circumstances, such as:

• Gender: Women and girls belonging to minority groups are at a higher risk of sexual abuse and violence. Furthermore, group belonging in combination with gender-based discrimination influences access to education.

• Home area and local clan dynamics: Gabooye have problems with access to health care and education, especially in rural settings. They also experience violations, 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. Yibir in rural areas are often exposed to abuse, exploitation and suffer from extreme poverty. Only in Puntland, are Tumal in a somewhat stronger position.  

Step 3: Is there a ground for persecution?  

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

In the case of occupational groups engaged in spiritual services, persecution may also be for reasons of religion, as these activities carry considerable stigma in the Sunni Islamic Somali society.