The Houthis expand the scope of surveillance against Yemenis: monitoring patients
The Iran-backed Houthi militias are expanding their surveillance activities against Yemenis by imposing close monitoring of patients and individuals frequenting health facilities and hospitals.
Security sources revealed that the intelligence apparatus of the Houthi militias has established a surveillance and espionage program targeting hospitals and health facilities in areas under their control, enabling them to identify everyone who visits public and private hospitals as well as medical centers.
The sources stated that the Houthi surveillance mechanism has no connection to improving the performance of medical facilities, but rather aims to enable the militias to obtain a database of individuals visiting these facilities, whether in emergency departments, outpatient clinics, operating rooms, or intensive care units.
The Houthi militias are seeking to build a database from within medical facilities, similar to what they have done with accommodation facilities such as hotels and popular lodgings, according to the sources.
A two-phase plan
The sources confirmed that in the first phase, the Houthi militias linked medical facilities to a newly established security unit within the security administrations, directly affiliated with the security and intelligence apparatus, thereby placing all activities within medical facilities under security surveillance.
According to the sources, the second phase of the Houthi plan involves linking all clinics and medical centers to this newly created security unit by forcing these facilities to submit detailed daily data on cases, including surgical operations before they are performed, and to report emergency procedures in real time through the representative of the security unit assigned to each hospital.
Moreover, according to the sources, the Houthi militias seek to restrict medical services provided to the population by subjecting them to security approvals and using medical care as a form of security leverage, in addition to building a health database concerning a wide segment of their opponents.
Militarization of the health sector
Observers believe that medical data are among the most sensitive and private types of information. Through their collection, the militias aim to build a database that includes patients’ records, their medical histories, and access to precise personal information about their opponents in areas under their control.
This information can also be exploited for espionage purposes, to identify individuals, track their movements through hospital appointments or monitoring chronic illnesses, and potentially target opponents or suspected individuals based on their health conditions or where they receive treatment, according to the sources.
The collection of these data by the Houthi militias for security and espionage purposes constitutes a blatant violation of patients’ rights to privacy and medical confidentiality. It also reflects an attempt to politicize and militarize the health sector, transforming medical facilities, which should be places of humanitarian care, into tools serving their political and security agendas, according to observers.
Previously, the Houthis had established a unified system linking various databases belonging to vital sectors, including telecommunications networks, financial systems, civil registry, passport systems, and even security checkpoints, with the aim of spying on citizens.
