Migrants drown fleeing Africa

The Irish Times - Tuesday, January 4, 2011

At least 43 African migrants trying to reach Yemen by boat have drowned in heavy seas off the coast, and a second boat with up to 40 Ethiopians aboard is missing, Yemen’s interior ministry said yesterday.

The ministry’s website said three Somalis were rescued after a vessel carrying 46 people, mostly from Ethiopia, capsized, and a second boat carrying Ethiopians was missing. “It’s not known in which direction the wind took them and their fate is unknown,” it quoted the Yemeni coastguard as saying of the missing vessel, which it said carried 35-40 Ethiopians including women and children.

The UN refugee agency said five men among 46 Ethiopian and Somali passengers had survived the tragedy, which witnesses said began when the engine was caught in fishing nets of the boat, which had left Djibouti three hours earlier.

“This caused panic among the passengers who began to move around causing the boat to capsize. The two smugglers, Yemeni men, jumped off the boat. It is not known whether they survived,” UNHCR chief spokeswoman Melissa Fleming said.

UNHCR staff will be interviewing survivors today to learn more, she said, adding that the agency had no word yet on the fate of the second boat.

Mass drownings have been frequent as many African migrants in unseaworthy boats try to reach Yemen, which they see as a gateway to wealthier parts of the Middle East and the West.