U.N. says migrants put off boat to drown

JOHANNESBURG — Scores of migrants from Somalia and Ethiopia were “deliberately drowned” when a smuggler forced them into the sea off Yemen’s coast, the U.N.’s migration agency said in a statement Wednesday.

The International Organization for Migration statement called the incident “shocking and inhumane.” It said agency workers found the shallow graves of 29 migrants on a beach in Shabwa during a routine patrol.

The statement said the smuggler forced more than 120 migrants into the sea Wednesday morning when approaching Yemen’s coast.

The statement said agency workers provided aid for 27 surviving migrants who remained on the beach, while other migrants left. The agency said 22 migrants are missing.

The narrow waters between the Horn of Africa and Yemen have been a popular migration route despite Yemen’s ongoing conflict.