At least 18 Africans have drowned after a smuggler's boat carrying 88 African refugees from Somalia to Yemen capsized this week in the Gulf of Aden, said the United Nations Refugee Agency last Thursday.
The boat left on Thursday June 11 and sailed for four days before hitting strong winds and taking on water, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees said in a statement.
The statement added that another 29 people are still missing and presumed dead.
"More bodies are expected to be washed ashore," the UNHCR said, estimating that 146 people have drowned attempting the Gulf of Aden voyage so far this year and 25,764 have arrived safely in Yemen.
"Those who make the crossing are fleeing desperate situations of civil war, political instability, poverty and famine in Somalia and the Horn of Africa," the statement said.
37 Somalis seeking refuge in Yemen drowned after smugglers forced them at gunpoint into the sea to elude the coast guard as their two overcrowded vessels approached Yemeni shores last February.
Overall, 194 people have been reported dead or missing since the beginning of 2008 as a result of the risky trip across the Gulf, which last year claimed over 1,400 people either dead or missing.
So far this year, 25,764 refugees have landed in Yemen, most of them from Somalia, compared with over 29,500 for the whole of 2007. Hundreds of Somali and Ethiopian migrants perish every year making the dangerous crossing of the Gulf of Aden to Yemen on small boats run by smugglers operating from Somali ports.
Last year, more than 113,000 people, mostly Somalis, made the perilous voyage to Yemen.
Since the outbreak of civil war in Somalia, Yemen has become a magnet for refugees fleeing violence and drought in their own country and as a gateway to the oil-rich countries of the Arabian peninsula and on to Europe.
Yemen estimates that some 850,000 Africans have sought refuge in Yemen, but the UNHCR says that only 144,000 are registered with their organization here.
Many Somali refugees have shifted to a new route coming to Yemen through Djibouti to Dhubab coast in the Red Sea instead of sailing from Bossaso to the southern coasts of Yemen by the Arabian Sea.
The Journey from Djibouti to Yemeni coasts is much saver than the Journey from Bossaso of Somalia to the Yemeni coasts by the Arabian Sea.
Some newly arrived Somali refugees from Djibouti said they pay US$ 200 per each passenger to be paid to smugglers to smuggle them to Djibouti and then pay US$ 50 to smugglers in Djibouti to bring them to Yemen compared to US$ 50 being paid to smugglers in Bossaso to bring them to Yemen.
However they said it was safer to come to the Yemeni coasts by the Red Sea through Djibouti because the distance is shorter and no death incidents have been reported in this route.
The number of refugees’ trips to Yemen and the number of piracy attacks by the Somali pirates usually shrink in Winter due to the monsoon and they increase in number starting from April as the Monsoon usually ends in March.
Source: Yobserver.com
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