The United Nations migration agency said a ship carrying migrants sank off the coast of Yemen, leaving more than two dozen people dead or missing.
The International Organisation for Migration (IOM) said in the statement that 25 Ethiopian migrants were on board, along with two Yemenis, the captain and his assistant. The ship wrecked off the province of Taiz. The bodies of 11 men and two women surfaced along the shore of the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, which connects the Gulf of Aden to the Red Sea. The other 14 people, including two Yemenis, remain missing.
This latest tragedy is a stark reminder of the perils faced by migrants on this route. Every life lost in these dangerous waters is one too many, and it is imperative that we do not normalise these devastating losses and instead work collectively to ensure that migrants are protected and supported throughout their journeys, according to Matt Huber, IOM’s acting chief in Yemen.
This is the latest in a series of shipwrecks that have killed dozens of people. The tragedy followed similar shipwrecks in June and July. In June this year, at least 49 migrants died in a shipwreck off Yemen’s southern coast and 140 were reported missing, according to the organisation. Another 62 migrants died in two separate shipwrecks off the coast of Djibouti in April as they tried to reach Yemen.
[It] is yet another devastating reminder of the extreme dangers of this migration route and the reliance on smuggling networks. Vulnerable migrants are often pushed into perilous conditions by smugglers as they attempt to flee desperate circumstances in search of safety and opportunity in the Gulf states, the UN agency said.
At least 2,082 migrants have disappeared along the route over the past decade, including 693 who drowned as smugglers transport migrants in often dangerous, overcrowded boats through the Red Sea or Gulf of Aden, the organisation said.
The number of migrants arriving in Yemen has tripled in recent years, from about 27,000 in 2021 to more than 97,200 last year, the IOM reported, and there are now about 380,000 migrants in the conflict-ridden country.
Yemen, bordering Saudi Arabia to the north and Oman to the northeast, remains a major route for migrants from East Africa. Tens of thousands of refugees and migrants are fleeing the region to escape conflict, natural disasters or dire economic prospects. Many try to reach the Gulf countries to find work as labourers or domestic workers.
