More than 60 people die as migrant boat sinks off Yemen, more missing
Yemen
, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) has said.
The boat trip across the Gulf of Aden is the first part of one of the most dangerous migration and smuggling routes in the world, which desperate men and women from Ethiopia and other East African countries traverse as they attempt to reach oil-rich Saudi Arabia.
The boat, believed to have been carrying 150 people, capsized on Saturday night near the southern Yemeni province of Abyan, Yemini health and security officials said.
The IOM said 68 Ethiopians had died. There were at least 12 survivors. An unknown number of passengers remain missing. The death toll is expected to rise as more bodies wash ashore, the local officials said.
READ MORE
'This heartbreaking incident underscores the urgent need for enhanced protection mechanisms for migrants undertaking perilous journeys, often facilitated by unscrupulous smugglers who exploit desperation and vulnerability,' the IOM statement said.
Abdul Kader Bajamel, a health official in Zinjibar, said, 'The bodies of the dead and at least a dozen survivors, including two Yemeni smugglers, were taken to hospitals in Abyan.'
He added: 'Because the hospital's morgues could not accommodate this large number of bodies, and to avoid an environmental crisis, the governor of Abyan ordered the immediate burial of the dead and formed an emergency committee to search for the missing.'
Salah Balleel, a health official in Khanfar district in Abyan, said a hospital in the district had received one dead migrant and treated 11 survivors.
'The small boat was carrying far too many people,' Balleel said. 'We provided first aid and other medical assistance, and all the survivors have since left the hospital.'
The migrants' journey, called the Eastern Route, is one of the 'busiest and riskiest migration routes in the world,' according to the IOM. Tens of thousands of people attempted the trip last year, fleeing conflict, poverty, drought or political repression in countries including Ethiopia, Eritrea and Somalia.
To reach
Saudi Arabia
— where many hope to find work and disappear into a vast informal economy — they must first traverse Yemen, which shares a long, porous border with the kingdom.
Yemen has been torn apart by its own war since 2014, when the Houthis ousted the internationally recognized government from the country's capital, Sanaa.
A Saudi-led military coalition — backed by US military assistance and weaponry — embarked on a bombing campaign to rout the militia from power. Hundreds of thousands of people died from the violence, disease and starvation that resulted, in what became one of the world's worst humanitarian crises.
This article originally appeared in
The New York Times
.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Irish Times
2 days ago
- Irish Times
More than 60 people die as migrant boat sinks off Yemen, more missing
More than 60 migrants were killed when their overloaded boat capsized as they tried to cross the sea between the Horn of Africa and Yemen , the International Organization for Migration (IOM) has said. The boat trip across the Gulf of Aden is the first part of one of the most dangerous migration and smuggling routes in the world, which desperate men and women from Ethiopia and other East African countries traverse as they attempt to reach oil-rich Saudi Arabia. The boat, believed to have been carrying 150 people, capsized on Saturday night near the southern Yemeni province of Abyan, Yemini health and security officials said. The IOM said 68 Ethiopians had died. There were at least 12 survivors. An unknown number of passengers remain missing. The death toll is expected to rise as more bodies wash ashore, the local officials said. READ MORE 'This heartbreaking incident underscores the urgent need for enhanced protection mechanisms for migrants undertaking perilous journeys, often facilitated by unscrupulous smugglers who exploit desperation and vulnerability,' the IOM statement said. Abdul Kader Bajamel, a health official in Zinjibar, said, 'The bodies of the dead and at least a dozen survivors, including two Yemeni smugglers, were taken to hospitals in Abyan.' He added: 'Because the hospital's morgues could not accommodate this large number of bodies, and to avoid an environmental crisis, the governor of Abyan ordered the immediate burial of the dead and formed an emergency committee to search for the missing.' Salah Balleel, a health official in Khanfar district in Abyan, said a hospital in the district had received one dead migrant and treated 11 survivors. 'The small boat was carrying far too many people,' Balleel said. 'We provided first aid and other medical assistance, and all the survivors have since left the hospital.' The migrants' journey, called the Eastern Route, is one of the 'busiest and riskiest migration routes in the world,' according to the IOM. Tens of thousands of people attempted the trip last year, fleeing conflict, poverty, drought or political repression in countries including Ethiopia, Eritrea and Somalia. To reach Saudi Arabia — where many hope to find work and disappear into a vast informal economy — they must first traverse Yemen, which shares a long, porous border with the kingdom. Yemen has been torn apart by its own war since 2014, when the Houthis ousted the internationally recognized government from the country's capital, Sanaa. A Saudi-led military coalition — backed by US military assistance and weaponry — embarked on a bombing campaign to rout the militia from power. Hundreds of thousands of people died from the violence, disease and starvation that resulted, in what became one of the world's worst humanitarian crises. This article originally appeared in The New York Times .
RTÉ News
2 days ago
- RTÉ News
76 dead, dozens missing after migrant boat sinks off Yemen
At least 76 people have died and dozens are missing after a boat carrying mostly Ethiopian migrants sank off Yemen, officials said. Yemeni security officials said 76 bodies had been recovered and 32 people rescued from the shipwreck in the Gulf of Aden. The UN's migration agency said 157 people were on board. The incident occurred off Abyan governorate in southern Yemen, a frequent destination for boats smuggling African migrants hoping to reach the wealthy Gulf states. Some of those rescued have been transferred to Yemen's Aden, near Abyan, a security official said. UN agency the International Organization for Migration earlier gave a toll of at least 68 dead. The IOM's country chief of mission, Abdusattor Esoev, said that "the fate of the missing is still unknown." Despite the civil war that has ravaged Yemen since 2014, the impoverished country has remained a key transit point for irregular migration, in particular from Ethiopia which itself has been roiled by ethnic conflict. Each year, thousands brave the so-called "Eastern Route" from Djibouti to Yemen across the Red Sea, in the hope of eventually reaching oil-rich Gulf countries such as Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. The IOM recorded at least 558 deaths on the Red Sea route last year, with 462 from boat accidents. Last month, at least eight people died after smugglers forced migrants to disembark from a boat in the Red Sea, according to the UN's migration agency. The vessel that sank off Abyan was carrying mostly Ethiopian migrants, according to the province's security directorate and an IOM source. Yemeni security forces were conducting operations to recover a "significant" number of bodies, the Abyan directorate said. On their way to the Gulf, migrants cross the Bab al-Mandab Strait, the narrow waterway at the mouth of the Red Sea that is a major route for international trade, as well as for migration and human trafficking. Once in war-torn Yemen, the Arabian Peninsula's poorest country, migrants often face other threats to their safety. The IOM says tens of thousands of migrants have become stranded in Yemen and suffer abuse and exploitation during their journeys. In April, more than 60 people were killed in a strike blamed on the United States that hit a migrant detention centre in Yemen, according to the Houthi rebels that control much of the country. The wealthy Gulf monarchies host significant populations of foreign workers from South Asia and Africa.
Irish Times
21-07-2025
- Irish Times
People in disadvantaged communities have more negative attitude towards immigration, ESRI report finds
People living in disadvantaged communities in Ireland have a more negative attitude towards immigration , particularly in areas where there has been an increase in migrants, new research has found. The study by the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) looked at how different types of communities shaped people's attitudes towards immigration in Ireland. The analysis is based on a 2023 Department of Equality survey on Irish attitudes towards migration and is combined with 2022 census data on the characteristics of communities. The study defines disadvantaged areas as places with higher proportions of households headed by lone parents, the unemployed and those with a low education level or semi-skilled/unskilled jobs. READ MORE People living in these areas are less positive about immigration, with researchers quoting previous studies that found there is a 'greater perceived resource threat' among people in these areas, 'given more economically precarious individuals are likely to feel immigration is a particular threat to their position and resources'. While this negative attitude towards immigration in disadvantaged areas increased when the share of migrants went up, the paper also found that migrants are not more likely to live in these disadvantaged communities. It found the largest increase of migrant share between 2011 and 2022 happened in areas that are the least disadvantaged. The research also found that those living in rural areas had more negative attitudes towards immigration, compared with those living in urban areas. However, rural areas with high percentages of migrants had similar attitudes toward immigration as those in urban areas. The research also found that people living in more segregated areas, where migrants are living in clusters, have more negative attitudes towards immigration. The paper says this may reflect the importance of social contact with migrants for fostering more positive attitudes. 'This has important implications for policies aimed at improving migrant integration, but also indicates that broader economic and social policies and factors play a key role in social cohesion and attitudes towards immigration,' the paper says. There was no link between people living in areas with greater pressure on services such as health, housing and education and holding a more negative attitude towards immigration. This indicates that it may not be direct local experiences that affect attitudes but may instead be 'concern about pressure on services in Ireland as a whole', the paper says. Report author Fran McGinnity said the research 'shows that local communities can generate both obstacles to, but also opportunities for, social integration between non-migrants and migrants'. 'Communities are spaces where migrants and non-migrants not only encounter each other but can also form lasting social ties. This could be as next-door neighbours, as parents of children going to the same school, or in community groups. 'This kind of positive social contact between migrants and non-migrants can go a long way to generating positive relations between groups as well as building stronger, more cohesive communities in the long run,' Ms McGinnity said. Meanwhile, co-author of the report Keire Murphy said the research gives 'important insight into what makes anti-immigrant sentiment more likely'. 'Echoing international findings, socioeconomic factors like community-level disadvantage seem to matter, implying that the broader social and economic context is important for attitudes towards immigration,' Ms Murphy said.
