At least 56 migrants dead, 22 missing after human smugglers throw 300 migrants in Yemen waters

More than 56 people have been 'deliberately drowned' and dozens remain missing after human smugglers forced 300 African migrants off boats along Yemen’s Arabian Sea coastline on Thursday, said the International Organisation for Migration (IOM). 

According to IOM  all the survivors are either Ethiopian or Somali migrants. 

An IOM spokesperson informed the media that at least six people drowned on Thursday after human smugglers forced 180 Ethiopians of the boats they were travelling in into the waters of Arabian Sea. 

The spokesperson added that most of the migrants forced into the sea waters were teenagers or in their early twenties. 

The IOM also informed the media that the human smugglers had forced around 120 Somali migrants into the rough waters of the Arabian sea in Yemen coastline to avoid arrest. 

The Wednesday’s incident led to death of at least 50 migrants and around 22 have gone missing. IOM officials also informed the media that the dead have been burried by the survivors in the coast.

An IOM emergency officer talking to the AFP said, “The human smugglers push the migrants into the water to evade arrest from local authorities in the shore.”

IOM and the Red Cross have recovered at least bodies of 29 bodies along the coast of Shabwa — area under control of Yemeni troops backed by US forces.

According to IOM estimates, more than 55,000 migrants have left Horn of Africa for Yemen since January 2017 looking for a better life.