SANAA: The Yemeni coast guard has seized a boat in the <javascript:void(0)>
Gulf of Aden carrying 42 illegal migrants from Africa, the authorities said
Tuesday.
The coast guard intercepted the boat in Yemeni territorial waters, arresting
three crew members and the owner of the vessel, which had come from the Horn
of Africa.
The migrants were to be handed over to the <javascript:void(0)> U.N. High
Commissioner for Refugees "to be returned to the country from which they
embarked," the authorities said without specifying which country.
Would-be migrants from Africa, mainly Ethiopians and Somalis fleeing poverty
or violence, frequently set sail for <javascript:void(0)> Yemen in the hope
of reaching oil-rich Saudi Arabia.
On May 31, 60 migrants from <javascript:void(0)> Ethiopia and
<javascript:void(0)> Somalia along with two Yemeni crew members drowned in
the worst such tragedy off the coast of Yemen this year, according to the
UNHCR.
In the past five years, more than 500,000 people - mostly Eritreans,
Ethiopians and Somalis - have reached Yemen via the Gulf of Aden and the
<javascript:void(0)> Red Sea following treacherous journeys on vessels that
are often overloaded.
Yemen is home to up to two million migrants, mostly illegals who entered
from other countries of the Arabian Peninsula, according to unofficial
estimates commonly cited by experts and humanitarian organizations.