The U.S. State Department announced in its 2026 report on human trafficking that this activity remains a profitable part of Yemen’s war economy, and the Houthi forces supported by the Islamic Republic obtain significant financial benefits from it.

According to this report, in addition to profiting financially from migration routes, the Houthis also recruit children for military activities. The U.S. State Department estimates that about 400,000 Yemeni children and teenagers may have participated in summer camps controlled by the Houthis in 2024; camps that, according to the ministry, are used to recruit personnel.

The report adds that children are recruited through coercion, abduction, threats, and financial incentives, and are put to use in activities including guarding checkpoints, laying mines, and driving military vehicles.

For the eleventh consecutive year, the U.S. State Department has placed Yemen in the category of “special cases” of human trafficking. The report also implicated Yemen’s government armed forces and groups supported by them in recruiting and employing children as soldiers.