On Tuesday, a migrant boat sunk off the coast of Yemen killing 49 people and leaving 140 others missing, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM) of the UN.
According to IOM’s statement, the vessel sank after covering 320 Kilometres (200 miles) across Gulf of Aden from northern coastal Somalia with roughly 260 Somalis and Ethiopians on board on Monday near Yemen’s southern coast.
The organization said search operations are still underway and as at now only seventy one persons have survived. The dead included 31 women and six children.
Yemen is a key transit point for migrants from Eastern Africa and the Horn of Africa who want to find jobs in Gulf countries. In fact, despite almost ten years’ war that is taking place in Yemen, number of such migrants has increased by three times within a year: during previous year it rose from around twenty seven thousand arrivals up to more than ninety thousand ones, as was already mentioned by IOM in its last month report. About three eighty thousand immigrants live in Yemen today, according to them.
To reach Yemen they are transported across the Red Sea or Gulf of Aden by smugglers on unsafe boats. In April two ships carrying would-be migrants capsized near Djibouti claiming sixty two lives. As stated by IOM so far this route has claimed at least eighteen hundred sixty human lives while four hundred eighty drowned into water along it.
“This latest tragedy underscores once again the need for us to pull together in order to tackle migration challenges and ensure safe passage for those making their way along these routes,” underscored Mohammedali Abunajela – IOM spokesperson commenting upon Monday’s events.
