At least 76 migrants die as boat sinks off Yemen

News24

04-08-2025

At least 76 people died when a boat sank off the coast of Yemen.
Yemen's Abyan province is a frequent destination for migrant smuggling boats.
Poland extended temporary controls on the border with its EU neighbours Germany and Lithuania.
At least 76 people have been killed and dozens are missing after a boat carrying mostly Ethiopian migrants sank off Yemen, in the latest tragedy on the perilous sea route, officials told AFP on Monday.
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.
On Sunday, two security sources in southern Yemen's Abyan province - a frequent destination for migrant smuggling boats - gave a preliminary toll of 27 killed in the shipwreck.
The vessel that sank off the coast of Yemen's Abyan was carrying mostly Ethiopian migrants, according to the province's security directorate.
It said on Sunday that security forces were conducting operations to recover a 'significant' number of bodies.
In July, at least eight people died after smugglers had forced migrants to disembark from a boat in the Red Sea, according to the UN's migration agency.
The International Organisation for Migration says tens of thousands of migrants have become stranded in Yemen and suffer abuse and exploitation during their journeys.
In 2024, the IOM recorded at least 558 deaths on the Red Sea route, with 462 resulting from shipwrecks.
Poland has extended temporary controls on the border with its EU neighbours Germany and Lithuania, Poland's Interior Minister Marcin Kierwinski said on Sunday, as the government cracks down on irregular migrants.
'The relevant regulation was issued and sent to the European Commission for notification on Friday,' Kierwinski said at a meeting with regional governors.
He said the checks, which were introduced in July after Germany imposed similar ones to stop undocumented migrants, would be extended until 4 October.
Ben Stansall/AFP
Kierwinski said increased checks and barriers on Poland's border with Russia and Belarus had stopped irregular migrants transiting through those countries.
He added it was now 'fundamental' to close the route being used by migrants through the Baltic states of Latvia and Lithuania and then across Poland to Germany.
Polish officials estimate that hundreds of migrants, mainly from the Middle East, are crossing into the Baltic states every month from ex-Soviet Belarus.
EU countries within the free-movement Schengen area are allowed to impose border controls if they feel there is a threat to public order or internal security.
Despite the 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 yeah, 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.