Date: Sun, 8 Jun 2014 23:58:22 +0200
62 African migrants, crew drown in boat tragedy off Yemen: UN
Sunday, 08.06.2014, 22:10
Sixty migrants from Ethiopia and Somalia along with two Yemeni crew members
drowned on May 31 in the worst such tragedy off the coast of Yemen this
year, <http://www.afp.com> AFP reports according to the UN.
"The tragedy is the largest single loss of life of migrants and refugees
attempting to reach Yemen via the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden this year,"
Adrian Edwards, spokesman for the refugee agency UNHCR, told reporters in
Geneva.
The UN agency said it was still seeking information about the tragedy, but
had confirmed that the boat carrying 60 Ethiopian and Somali migrants and
two Yemeni crew members sank last Saturday.
"The victims were reportedly buried by local residents after their bodies
washed ashore near the Bab El Mandeb area off Yemen's coast," Edwards said,
adding that the UNHCR did not know where the boat begun it journey.
In Sanaa, a Yemeni employee of the UNHCR said the boat went down because of
bad weather conditions off Dhubab, at the entrance to the Bab El Mandeb
waterway between the Gulf of Aden and the Red Sea.
"Most of the victims are of Ethiopian nationality," he said, quoting a local
NGO, the Society for Humanitarian Solidarity.
The UNHCR pointed out that counting previous such tragedies in the same
area, at least 121 people have died so far this year trying to reach Yemen.
The agency said it had documented the arrival of 16,500 refugees and
migrants on the Yemeni coast during the first four months of 2014 alone.
That number, however, was far below the 35,000 who arrived in Yemen during
the same period last year.
Impoverished Yemen is mainly used as a transit country, with African
migrants often aiming to move on to neighbouring oil-rich Gulf nations to
find work.
'Alarming loss of life"
Edwards told <http://www.afp.com> AFP the drop in arrivals in Yemen
appeared linked, among other things, to a shift in migration patterns
towards North Africa and Libya because of unrest in Yemen and a crackdown in
Saudi Arabia on illegal migration.
"Over the past five years, more than half a million people, mainly Somalis,
Ethiopians and Eritreans, have crossed the dangerous waters of the Gulf of
Aden and the Red Sea to reach Yemen," he said.
"Boats are overcrowded and smugglers have reportedly thrown passengers
overboard to prevent capsizing or avoid detection," he added, pointing out
that search-and-rescue officials estimate this has resulted in hundreds of
undocumented deaths in recent years.
Yemen has taken in up to two million refugees, mostly illegal migrants,
according to unofficial estimates in Sanaa.
"Each refugee costs the Yemeni state an average of around 2,300 dollars a
year," researcher Mustapha Nasr, who runs a Sanaa-based economic data
centre, told <http://www.afp.com> AFP.
Thousands of migrants, many trying to reach Europe, have died in other
tragedies at sea in recent years.
UNHCR said Friday it was "working to prevent the alarming loss of life at
sea and indifference to people desperately needing protection."
"We are reiterating our call for governments in the region to strengthen
their search-and-rescue capacities," Edwards said.
On Friday, a Tunisian official said the coast guard had intercepted a boat
off Zarzis, in southern Tunisia, loaded with more than 200 migrants who left
from Libya hoping to cross the Mediterranean to reach Europe.
The migrants -- including 104 Nigerians, 23 Senegalese and 16 Tunisians --
were taken to Zarzis port on Thursday, Mongi Slim of the Tunisian Red
Crescent told <http://www.afp.com> AFP.
In northern Morocco, meanwhile, 94 migrants were arrested on the coast near
Tangiers on Friday as they tried to board inflatable boats to cross to
Spain, the official news agency MAP reported.
62 African migrants, crew drown in boat tragedy off Yemen: UN
CReuters/Hani Amara
(image/jpeg attachment: image001.jpg)