GENEVA - At least thirty Somali and Ethiopian migrants have drowned whilst crossing the Gulf of Aden in the hope of reaching Yemen, the United Nations refugee agency said on Tuesday.UN High Commissioner for Refugees spokesman Ron Redmond told journalists that “sketchy, unconfirmed” reports from the region suggested that up to 78 people may have perished when their boat capsized. “We’re getting different numbers from people in the region ... apparently bodies are washing ashore in various places,” Redmond said. The dead are being buried near the beach, he added.
| Said it before, will say it again: just what kind of hellhole must your country be when Yemen looks like the promised land? |
There has been a dramatic increase in people smuggling from Somalia, with over 1,600 arrivals in Yemen aboard some 20 boats in less than a month, the UNHCR said. This follows a “slow” January, due to a crackdown on smugglers in Somalia, recent fighting in that country, and stepped-up patrols along the Yemeni coast, it noted.
In 2006, UNHCR Yemen reported that some 27,000 people made the perilous voyage, with 330 deaths and another 300 still missing.