At least 68 migrants are dead and 74 more missing after a ship sank off the coast of Yemen Sunday, the UN's migration agency said. Tens of thousands of migrants cross the perilous waters between the Horn and Africa and Yemen every year in search of work in Saudi Arabia and the wealthy Gulf states.
At least 68 African migrants died and 74 others were missing after their boat capsized Sunday in the waters off Yemen, the UN’s migration agency said.
Abdusattor Esoev, head of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) in Yemen, told the Associated Press that the boat, with 154 Ethiopian migrants, capsized off Yemen’s province of Abyan.
Twelve migrants survived the shipwreck, he said, adding that the bodies of 54 migrants washed ashore in the district of Khanfar and 14 others were found dead at a different location and taken to a hospital morgue.
Two medics said rescuers were still looking for survivors.
The IOM says Yemen continues to witness a significant increase in the influx of irregular migrants arriving from Africa.
Migrants cross the Bab al-Mandab strait that separates Djibouti and Eritrea from Yemen each year on flimsy boats in the hope of reaching Saudi Arabia and other Gulf countries in the hope of finding work.
The IOM describes the route from the Horn of Africa to Yemen as "one of the world's busiest and most perilous mixed migration routes". It said it recorded the arrival of more than 60,000 migrants in Yemen last year.
(FRANCE 24 with AP and Reuters)
Text initially published on: France 24