E-MAIL THIS LINK
To: 

Somalia: 29 drowned in Yemen
(SomaliNet) At least 29 migrants have died and 71 others are missing after smugglers forced them at knife-point to jump into the sea off the coast of Yemen, the UN refugee agency has said. Some of the 293 survivors said the smugglers ordered some 450 migrants to jump when their boats hit rough seas near the coast town of Ras al-Kalb.
Smugglers forced them at knife-point to jump into the sea off the coast of Yemen.
"We are horrified by this latest tragedy," said UNHCR's Assistant High Commissioner Erika Feller after returning from a visit to Yemen. "These brutal smugglers care nothing about the fate of the people they prey upon, both refugees and... migrants who are desperate to escape persecution, violence and poverty in the Horn of Africa," Ms Feller said.

Some of the migrants were attacked by sharks, and several recovered bodies showed signs of severe mutilation, the survivors said. The incident is the latest in a series of tragedies involving smugglers' boats carrying people across the Gulf of Aden from Somalia.
Posted by: Fred 2007-03-27
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=184165