At least 49 migrants dead in shipwreck off Yemen

The International Organization for Migration (IOM) announced Tuesday that the death toll from the sinking of a boat carrying 260 migrants off the coast of Yemen was at least 49, including 31 women and six children.

“At least 49 migrants have died and 140 are missing,” the IOM said in a statement. A previous report reported 39 deaths.

“This tragedy reminds us once again of the urgent need to work together to address pressing migration challenges and ensure the safety of migrants along migration routes,” said Mohammedali Abunajela, IOM spokesperson. .

According to survivors, the boat left Bossaso in Somalia around 3:00 a.m. on Sunday, with 115 Somali nationals and 145 Ethiopians on board, including 90 women, the statement said.

“This situation reflects the recent increase in the number of migrants from the Horn of Africa traveling to Yemen, spurred by political and economic instability, as well as severe droughts and other extreme weather events in countries like Ethiopia and Somalia,” according to the statement.

Every year, tens of thousands of migrants from the Horn of Africa take the “Eastern Route”, which crosses the Red Sea, to try to reach the oil-rich Gulf countries, fleeing conflicts, natural disasters and poor economic prospects in their countries.

In April, two boats sank off the coast of Djibouti two weeks apart, killing dozens.

At least 1,350 migrants have died on the “Eastern Route” since 2014, not counting this year, according to IOM statistics.

Migrants who manage to reach Yemen often face other threats to their safety, given that the Arabian Peninsula's poorest country has been gripped by civil war for nearly a decade.

– More than tripled –
In May, the IOM reported that, despite these dangers, the number of migrants arriving in Yemen each year had “tripled from 2021 to 2023, from around 27,000 to more than 90,000.”

Many migrants try to reach Saudi Arabia and other Gulf countries where they can find jobs as laborers or domestic workers.

In August, the NGO Human Rights Watch (HRW) accused Saudi border guards of having killed “hundreds” of Ethiopians who tried to enter the Gulf kingdom from Yemen from March 2022 to June 2023.

Riyadh rejected these accusations, calling them “unfounded”.

In a report released last week, the Mixed Migration Center (MMC) said hospitals in Yemen continued to receive migrants injured in attacks along the border and others continued to be killed.

This NGO which carries out independent research and analysis on migration said it was extremely difficult to obtain comprehensive data about these events.

Therefore, “it is impossible to say whether, proportionally, the scale of migrant murders has decreased compared to last year,” the NGO said.

“However, even though Saudi authorities had instructed border guards to reduce or end actions that result in migrant deaths, the MMC found that the killings of Ethiopian migrants by Saudi security officials continued.” , according to the report.