Fyr Posted March 10, 2005 GENEVA (Reuters) - More than 100 Somali and Ethiopian people are feared to have drowned at sea in the past week while trying to reach Yemen aboard smugglers' boats, the United Nations said on Thursday. Most perished when a vessel carrying 93 passengers sank on March 3 in the Gulf of Aden after developing a technical problem, the U.N. refugee agency UNHCR said in a statement. Only the four crew survived, after being picked up by other smugglers' boats who had also set sail the same day from northeastern Somalia, it said. "They rescued the crew but left all the passengers to drown," UNHCR spokeswoman Marie-Helene Verney told Reuters. A further 18 Africans are believed to have drowned on March 7 after the crew of another boat ordered its 85 passengers to jump into the sea while some distance from the coast. "This tragedy is the latest in a series of similar accidents that have caused an untold number of deaths in the past few years," UNHCR said. A year ago, 100 people are believed to have drowned when a smugglers' boat sank in the same waters, it added. Thousands of Somalis and Ethiopians each year "fall prey to unscrupulous traffickers" in the hope of being smuggled into Yemen, from where many seek to make their way to Europe, according to the UNHCR. It said this "growing disaster" had its roots in poverty coupled with insecurity in the case of Somalia, which drives desperate people into smugglers' hands. "Most of these people are economic migrants but a certain number are refugees," Verney said. Survivors from the latest incidents, as well as some 450 passengers from other smugglers' boats who also sailed from Somalia at the same time, were intercepted by Yemeni authorities. They are receiving care at Mayfa'a reception center near the coastal village of Bir Ali in southern Yemen. They told UNHCR staff that some 1,500 people are waiting to be smuggled into Yemen from Bossasso, in northeastern Somalia, in coming days. © Reuters 2005. All Rights Reserved. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
