- Boat carrying 45 migrants and refugees capsizes off Yemen
- The vessel overturned on Wednesday night due to strong winds and overloading
- Only four survivors have been found
- IOM reported a rise in migrants arriving in Yemen from the Horn of Africa, from about 73,000 in 2022 to over 97,200 last year
Boat carrying 45 migrants and refugees capsizes off Yemen
Only four survivors have been found after a boat carrying at least 45 migrants and refugees capsized off Yemen, according to the UN Refugee Agency. The vessel overturned on Wednesday night due to strong winds and overloading near the coast of Taiz province along the southern Red Sea.
The agency, working with its partners to assist the survivors, emphasised the dangers of migration routes between Yemen and Africa. This incident follows a similar tragedy last month, where at least 56 Somali and Ethiopian migrants died and 140 went missing after a boat capsized in the Gulf of Aden.
The International Organization for Migration (IOM) reported a rise in migrants arriving in Yemen from the Horn of Africa, from about 73,000 in 2022 to over 97,200 last year. Migrants, driven by political and economic instability, severe droughts, and other extreme weather, aim to reach Saudi Arabia and other Gulf countries but often rely on dangerous and overcrowded smuggler boats.
Survivors must navigate Yemen, which is devastated by a nine-year civil war, resulting in over 150,000 deaths and one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises. Since 2014, at least 1,860 people have died or disappeared along the migration route between the East and Horn of Africa and Gulf countries, including 480 who drowned.
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