Refugees feared drowned after being dumped

ABOUT 180 young Ethiopian and Somali migrants, many weakened by hunger and drought in their home countries, were forced from a boat into rough seas off Yemen, by smugglers last week. Fifty-five of them were presumed drowned, the UN migration agency said.

It was the second such incident in as many days off Shabwa province in southern Yemen.

On Wednesday 50 teenage African refugees were “deliberately drowned” by smugglers who forced 120 passengers off his boat, the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) said. The IOM said it feared the incidents might mark the start of a new trend in people-smuggling that could lead to more deaths. Twenty-nine bodies washed up on the shore after Wednesday’s tragedy while 27 people made it to the shore, it said.

“They were shocked, exhausted and quite desperate,” Laurent de Boeck, the IOM Yemen chief of mission, said.

Smugglers were pushing refugees into the sea away from the mainland for fear of government boats, amid reinforced border controls, or to avoid encountering armed groups on shore in the wartorn country. They were then going back to Africa to pick up more refugees.

“The smugglers are panicking,” De Boeck said, adding that reinforced border controls along the coast could be having a counter-productive effect. “They (the smugglers) are basically continuing their business by killing people,” he said.

After refugees were forced into the sea on Thursday, the IOM counted five bodies. “Fifty are still missing from this incident, so 55 are presumed dead,” IOM spokeswoman Olivia Headon said. “They drop them near the shore and turn around to get more.”

IOM officials spoke to 25 of the latest survivors, many in need of medical assistance and counselling, she said.

“These people are really thin. There is a drought in Somalia and Ethiopia. Some may not have had much strength to make it alive to the shore,” she added.

The refugees reported that 100 other survivors had already left the beach. – Reuters