Rescue operation launched after eight migrants die off coast of Djibouti, IOM says
The UN migration agency said on Wednesday that eight migrants died and 22 others are missing after they were forced off a boat near the coast of Djibouti.
The International Organisation for Migration (IOM) said in a statement the migrants were part of a group of 150 who were forced by smugglers to disembark a boat and swim to shore on 5 June.
The migrants were found in the desert by IOM patrol teams and taken to a migrant response centre.
The IOM and authorities in Djibouti are continuing with a search and rescue operation to find the missing migrants.
"Every life lost at sea is a tragedy that should never happen," Celestine Frantz, the IOM Regional Director for the East, Horn and Southern Africa, said.
Frantz said that the migrants were "forced into impossible choices by smugglers who show no regard for human life."
Thousands of migrants from African, Middle Eastern and South Asian countries seeking a better life in Europe attempt irregular migration every year.
People smugglers pack vessels full of desperate people willing to risk their lives to reach continental Europe.
Most of the vessels get migrants across the Red Sea to Gulf countries before they proceed further to European nations.
Yemen is a major route for migrants from East Africa and the Horn of Africa trying to reach Gulf countries for work, with hundreds of thousands attempting the route each year.
However Frontex, the EU's external border protection agency, reported a 31% drop in illegal migrant crossings in the first quarter of 2025 compared to the same period one year ago.
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Crossings fell to nearly 33,600 with a decline reported across every single route leading to Europe.
A significant drop, around 30%, was observed on the Western African route, which connects Senegal, Mauritania, The Gambia and Western Sahara to Spain's Canary Islands.
Similarly, a 29% fall was reported in crossings along the Eastern Mediterranean route, mostly leading to Cyprus, Greece and Bulgaria from Afghanistan, Sudan and Egypt.
The third sharpest fall, -26%, was on the Central Mediterranean route, from western and central Africa through Niger and Libya across the Central Mediterranean towards Europe, in particular Italy.
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