At least 46 migrants drowned and 16 others went missing on Wednesday after a boat carrying more than 100 capsized off the shore of Yemen, UN said.
In recent past decades, hundreds of migrants from Somalia and Ethiopia have been a perilous journey to reach the war-torn before proceeding to Saudi Arabia and several other countries in search of better life.
The capsized boat was reportedly sailed from the port of Bossaso in Somalia’s northeastern region, Bari, on Tuesday.
International Organisation Migration (IOM) said the boat overturned in high waves in the Gulf of Aden at around 5 am (0200 GMT.) as it is approached its final destination.
The agency quoting survivors said 83 men and 17 women who were hoping to secure jobs in Yemen and other Arab countries boarded from Bossaso town.
“IOM staff reported that 46 migrants had drowned, 37 men and 9 women. A further 16 remain missing, presumed dead, they are believed to all be Ethiopians,” reads a statement by the agency, “Survivors said the passengers, who were without lifejackets in the smuggler’s boat, started panicking as high waves struck close to the shore. As the boat took on water, they were pitched headlong into the rough seas where so many succumbed.”
IOM’s director of Operations and Emergencies, Mohamed Abdikadir termed the Gulf of Aden’s Migration as ‘Recurring Nightmares’ which remained unsolved.
“Over 7,000 poor migrants take this perilous journey every month; some 100,000 took it just last year. They are treated appallingly and go through horrendous conditions. This has to end,” he was quoted as saying in the statement.
The drownings happened just days after IOM helped 101 Ethiopians, including 51 women and 33 children, to leave Yemen for Djibouti, as fighting closed in around Yemen’s key port of Hodeidah.
They were stranded in Yemen and among the most vulnerable of about 300 migrants stuck in detention, IOM said.
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