Fishermen today found the bodies of at least 25 migrants trying to reach Yemen in hopes of moving to rich Gulf countries, a local official said today.
“Fishermen found 25 bodies at sea,” near the Bab al-Madeb and Djibouti Straits, said Jalil Ahmed Ali, who added that the boat “capsized two days ago and carried between 160 and 200 people”. The fate of the others is ignored.
The International Organization for Migration confirmed the sinking of a boat in the area, saying that the exact circumstances of the accident have not been clarified.
The boat sank off the coast of Ras al-Ara, in the province of Lahtz (south), a zone called by NGOs “hell” for migrants.
Despite the devastating conflict in Yemen, irregular migration continues mainly starting in Ethiopia.
“We found 25 bodies (of migrants) who drowned when a boat carrying dozens of them sank off the coast of Yemen,” said one of the fishermen.
Gulf oil-rich countries such as Saudi Arabia or the United Arab Emirates welcome a significant number of foreign workers from the Indian subcontinent or Africa.
Dozens of migrants have died in recent months in the Bab al-Madeb Strait, which separates Djibouti from Yemen, a major route for international trade but also for immigration and human trafficking.
Blocked in war-torn Yemen, many migrants are also doing the opposite. In April, at least 42 migrants lost their lives off Djibouti after the sinking of their boat that had left Yemen, according to the IOM.
The agency estimates that 32,000 migrants, mostly Ethiopians, remain stranded in the country, which has been ravaged by more than six years of civil war and plunged into what the UN calls the worst humanitarian disaster in the world right now.
