International Organisation for Migration (IOM) says at least 20 people have drowned after smugglers threw dozens of migrants overboard as they sailed from Djibouti to Yemen.
The UN agency reported that survivors are receiving medical treatment in the port town of Obock, adding that this is the third such incident in the Gulf of Aden in the last six months.
Reports say at least 200 migrants, including children, were crowded onto the vessel when it departed on 03 March, 2021.
It was learnt that smugglers forced around 80 people into the sea 30 minutes into the journey.
‘Wednesday’s tragedy is further proof that criminals continue to exploit people desperate to improve their lives for profit regardless of the consequences’, IOM Djibouti Chief of Mission, Stephanie Daviot, said.
According to IOM, which launched a $84 million appeal to respond to the needs of migrants in East Africa and Yemen in August 2020, thousands of migrants are believed to be stranded in Yemen and many face ‘extreme danger, exploitation and abuse in both Djibouti and Yemen’.
Every year, tens of thousands of mainly young East African migrants make the dangerous journey from countries such as Somalia and Ethiopia to Djibouti and on to war-torn Yemen.
In 2019, IOM said roughly 138,000 people made the journey in 2019, compared with 37,500 in 2020 – evidence of the impact of movement restrictions prompted by the Covid-19 pandemic.
In January this year, more than 2,500 migrants reached Yemen from Djibouti, and the UN agency has expressed concerns that more migrants will cross when Covid-19 transmission measures are lifted, raising the prospect of future tragedies.
Source: UN News
Photo source: IOM