One Somali refugee was killed and four injured in a clash on Saturday with Yemeni police who moved in to break up a month-long sit-in outside a UN agency office, Yemen's official news agency Saba reported.
It said four policemen were also hurt as officers dispersed protesters assembled outside the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in the capital Sanaa to appeal for help and protection against repatriation.
Yemen, a poor Arab state facing the Horn of Africa, is home to about 50,000 registered refugees fleeing lawlessness and poverty in war-torn Somalia.
Yemeni officials estimate the number of refugees and illegal immigrants at around 700,000.
Yemen has detained more than 10,000 illegal immigrants this year. Hundreds more have drowned off its coast during the hazardous voyage from Africa, often in overloaded and rickety vessels run by smugglers.