Deaths mount on Gulf of Aden smuggling route to Yemen: UN refugee agency

At least 70 people – mostly Somalis and Ethiopians – have died in the last week alone as a new wave of smugglers’ boats crossed the Gulf of Aden from the Horn of Africa to Yemen, the United Nations refugee agency reported today.

Ron Redmond, a spokesman for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), said the recent spate of arrivals came after a two-week lull because of bad weather which prevented small boats from making the perilous crossing.

But drought, recent clashes in parts of Somalia and general instability there are prompting more people to resort to smugglers, he said.

Between 12 January and yesterday, at least 27 smugglers’ boats carrying an undetermined number of people across the Gulf arrived along the coast of Yemen. A total of 1,295 Somali refugees and 73 Ethiopians have been registered at UNHCR's Mayfa'a Reception Centre in Yemen, but many others have not.

There were also many missing persons reported beside those confirmed dead.

The three latest fatal incidents occurred over the weekend, with two boats reportedly capsizing and another dropping off its 120 passengers who told of 10 people who had been thrown overboard or died of dehydration.

On January 16, a boat carrying 65 people reached Yemen after drifting for six days in the Gulf of Aden with little food or water. Survivors said 20 people died.

Last September, UNHCR called for international action to stem the flow of desperate people across the Gulf of Aden after at least 150 people died in a three-week period.

The agency has also been working with the authorities in northeast Somalia to inform people about the dangers of using smugglers to cross the Gulf of Aden through videos, radio programmes and other media.

UNHCR reiterated that Yemen, one of the few countries in the region to have signed the 1951 Convention on the Status of Refugees, has been generous in receiving migrants and refugees. The Yemeni authorities automatically grant refugee status to Somali citizens arriving in Yemen.

There are currently over 80,000 registered refugees in Yemen, some 75,000 of whom are Somalis, with possibly hundreds of thousands more who have not yet registered, according to UNHCR.