About 75 Ethiopian and Somali boat refugees are feared to have drowned when smugglers taking them to Yemen forced them to jump into the sea, with scores more missing, a UN refugee agency official said on Sunday.
Forty-five bodies have been recovered on the shores of Shabwa province, said the official with the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).
Only 50 of the refugees who were aboard four boats carrying 369 Africans made it to a UNHCR centre in the Mayfaah region of Shabwa, about 400km east of the port of Aden, he said, requesting anonymity.
The official, quoting survivors, said the refugees — 203 Ethiopians and 166 Somalis — were sailing to Yemen from Somalia aboard four boats when they were forced to jump into the Arabian Sea by the smugglers, who ordered them to swim to Yemeni shores.
He said 75 of them — 47 Ethiopians and 28 Somalis — drowned on Friday and Saturday, 50 made it to Mayfaah and the rest were missing.
Many of the latter may have arrived in the rugged areas of Shabwa and could be exhausted or even die before making it to the UN centre.
”A UNHCR team went today to the area where the refugees are landing,” the official said by telephone from Aden.
He said the new wave of refugees started earlier than in previous years, when the migrants usually began coming to Yemen in mid-September.
This season, the first boat carrying refugees sailed from Somalia in mid-August, he said.
Since then, about 125 Ethiopians and Somalis aboard six boats heading to Yemen have drowned, the official added.
Every year, thousands of Somalis and Ethiopians flee poverty or violence and try to make their way to Yemen, where many then seek to head for Europe.
The UNHCR has called for measures to deal with human trafficking and more development aid in the countries of origin. – Sapa-AFP