Mozambique: 50 illegal migrants die in a shipwreck

Source: Washington Post, Wednesday, February 16, 2011

MAPUTO, Mozambique -- Mozambican police say 50 illegal Somali migrants and a Tanzanian captain died after a ship sank off the coast of northern Mozambique.

Police spokesman Pedro Cossa said Wednesday that the boat full of illegal migrants was traveling to South Africa from Somalia when it sank Sunday. Mozambican marines sent the 89 Somali and Ethiopian survivors to a refugee camp which holds about 3,000 illegal migrants.

Cossa says he does not know the cause of the shipwreck.

South Africa, one of the continent's biggest economies, has become a popular destination for Africans fleeing economic and political crisis in their homelands. Hundreds of other migrants also die each year while attempting to cross from the Horn of Africa to the Middle East.