Up to 50 Somalis and Ethiopians are feared dead after a smuggler taking dozens of migrants to Yemen forced them back into the Arabian Sea off the nation’s coast, the UN migration agency said.
Survivors of the incident told the International Organization for Migration that the smuggler pushed them back into the water after he saw “authority types,” according to Laurent de Boeck, the IOM Yemen Chief of Mission, in press statement posted to the group’s website.
“This is shocking and inhumane,” de Boeck said. “The suffering of migrants on this migration route is enormous. Too many young people pay smugglers with the false hope of a better future.”
The migrants had been hoping to reach the Gulf via Yemen to find better opportunities and escape the political instability and violence plaguing their nations. The IOM estimates 55,000 migrants left the Horn of Africa to come to Yemen since January. Smugglers work in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden.
The trip across the waters from Somalia to Yemen is fraught with peril, with Yemen engulfed in war. A boat carrying Somali migrants was attacked in March, killing 42. Windy season in the Indian Ocean makes the trip especially dangerous.
The smuggler’s boat approaching Yemen on Wednesday was near the Shabwa coast. The IOM said the smuggler pushed 120 Ethiopians and Somalis into the sea.