A smuggling ship loaded with migrants sank in bad weather off the coast of southern Yemen on Sunday, killing at least 68 of its passengers. Another 74 are still missing, while only 12 victims had been recovered by rescue teams as of Monday.
According to the International Organization for Migration (IOM), most of the passengers on the boat were Ethiopians. The ship launched from the Horn of Africa and followed a dangerous route along the coast of Yemen that is often employed by human smugglers to reach Gulf states like Saudi Arabia.
The IOM has described this passage as “one of the busiest and most perilous mixed migration routes.” It recorded 558 deaths along the Red Sea route last year, while some 60,000 migrants made it to Yemen.
Rough seas, poor weather, and an unfriendly coastline are precisely the features that make the Yemen route attractive to smugglers because they believe patrol ships are reluctant to sail under such dangerous conditions.
On Saturday night, a ship overloaded with 154 migrants ran into heavy weather and strong winds off the coast of Yemen’s Abyan province. Provincial authorities launched a large-scale search-and-rescue effort after the ship capsized. Dozens of dead bodies were found along the coast of Abyan.
“Many of the bodies have been found scattered along various parts of the coastline, raising fears that more victims remain missing at sea,” provincial officials said in a Facebook post.
Abdusattor Esoev, head of IOM operations in Yemen, noted that few of the bodies recovered to date were wearing life vests.
“The underlying cause of boats capsizing in the Eastern Route is due to smugglers filling boats over capacity and not providing enough life vests on board,” he said.
Security officials said some of the migrants who were rescued alive have been transferred to the nearby port city of Aden, which is the temporary capital of the elected government that was unseated by Iran-backed rebels in 2014.
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