Sixteen others are missing after a boat that left Somalia with at least 100 people capsized in the Gulf of Aden.
Forty-six
Ethiopians drowned and 16 are missing after a human smuggler's boat
carrying at least 100 refugees capsized as it approached Yemen. The
vessel left the port of Bossasso in Somalia on Tuesday with 83 men and
17 women on board. They were hoping to find work in Yemen and the Gulf,
the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) said in a statement
on Wednesday, citing information from survivors.
IOM's director of
operations and emergencies, Mohammad Abdiker, described the Gulf of
Aden's migration tragedy as being part of a "hidden crisis".
"Over
7,000 poor migrants take this perilous journey every month; some
100,000 took it just last year. They are treated appallingly and go
through horrendous conditions. This has to end," said Abdiker.
The
drownings happened just days after IOM helped 101 Ethiopians -
including 51 women and 33 children - to leave Yemen for Djibouti, as
fighting closed in around Yemen's key port of Hudaida.
Al Jazeera's Mohamed Vall has more.
