Latest news with #AbdusattorEsoev
Yemen Online
15 hours ago
- Politics
- Yemen Online
Africa-Yemen migration crisis requires new approach, IOM warns
An international security initiative is urgently needed in the Red Sea region to curb human trafficking, experts and officials said. The call for action comes after about 100 people died when a boat carrying about 150 migrants capsized off Yemen's coast this month, drawing renewed attention to irregular migration. The civil war in Yemen since 2014 has not only created one of the world's worst humanitarian crises but has also brought migration to its shores, as migrants hope to cross and find work in neighbouring Gulf states. Migrants often sail from Ethiopia, Somalia, Djibouti and Sudan, where violence has driven thousands to flee, making the route from the Horn of Africa to Yemen one of the busiest and deadliest in the world. Last year, the International Organisation of Migration (IOM) recorded 446,000 movements along the Eastern Route, 10 per cent of which were by children. It is known that on the route, migrants are often subject to life-threatening conditions, including starvation and dehydration. Since January 2025, at least five boat capsizes have been reported in Yemeni waters, Abdusattor Esoev, the IOM Yemen chief of mission, told The National. In the past decade, at least 1,098 migrants drowned at sea off Yemen, while in 2025, 378 such deaths were recorded, including the latest incident. 'The migrant crisis in Yemen is a crisis within a crisis, in which migrants are exposed to various protection risks,' explained Mr Esoev. 'In 2024, more than 60,000 migrants have arrived on Yemen's shores,' he added.
LeMonde
a day ago
- General
- LeMonde
More and more Ethiopians are risking their lives at sea in attempts to reach Yemen
It was the deadliest boat accident on the migration path known as the "Eastern Route" in the past five years. On Sunday, August 3, at least 90 people drowned off the coast of Yemen, near the town of Shoqra. According to Abdusattor Esoev, the International Organization for Migration's (IOM) Chief of Mission in Yemen, 154 people were aboard a wooden boat when it capsized in the Gulf of Aden. The boat was overloaded and sailing in rough seas, and though 12 migrants – all men – survived, around 50 other people were still missing. All of them hailed from Ethiopia. On Monday, Ethiopia's Foreign Affairs Ministry expressed "deep sorrow" and conveyed its condolences to the victims' families, in a statement reported by the state-backed Fana Media Corporation. The ministry also urged Ethiopian citizens to "avoid irregular migration routes" and to "protect themselves from human traffickers, who exploit vulnerable individuals and expose them to life-threatening risks." Sinkings along this route, one of the "one of the world's most dangerous migration corridors," according to the IOM, are not uncommon. In March, four migrant boats sank in the area, resulting in a grim toll of 180 missing individuals. Moreover, these figures do not include other damage they can suffer at sea: On Wednesday, at least seven Ethiopians died from thirst and hunger, and several others went missing after a boat traveling from Somalia to Yemen broke down in the open sea.
Yemen Online
3 days ago
- General
- Yemen Online
Despite dangers, migrant flow persists between Horn of Africa and Yemen
According to the International Organization of Migration, the route from the Horn of Africa to Yemen is one of the busiest – and deadliest – in the world. Hoping to find work in the oil-rich Gulf states, thousands of Africans, many from Ethiopia, risk their lives on perilous sea journeys. But despite the high number of deaths each year, the route garners less media attention than other migratory flows. Thousands of Africans travel from Djibouti to Yemen across the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden every year, hoping to reach Gulf states such as Saudi Arabia to work as labourers or domestic workers. The Eastern route is one of the world's most dangerous, according to the International Organization of Migration (IOM), which documented at least 558 deaths in 2024, including 462 from shipwrecks. Overall, the United Nations agency estimates that 3,400 people have died using this route over the past 10 years. On Sunday a boat carrying nearly 200 people sank off the Yemeni coast, killing more than 90 of them, with some still missing. Ethiopia's permanent mission in Geneva responded by urging its citizens to "avoid irregular routes". The IOM said that it was "working with partners to mobilise resources and deliver humanitarian assistance to protect people on the move, as well as to support the government to respond to migration crisis". In March, at least 180 people were reported missing off the Yemeni coast, the majority of them from Ethiopia. Abdusattor Esoev, the IOM's head of mission in Yemen, told RFI that: "A network of cross-border smugglers exploits the desperation of people who need better jobs and better opportunities." Lack of interest The IOM estimates that 60,000 people landed in Yemen in 2024 alone. Marina de Regt, an anthropologist at the Free University of Amsterdam who specialises in migration in this region, agrees that "the numbers are enormous". "In many cases, migrants pay and don't even know they have to cross the sea and then go through Yemen before arriving in Saudi Arabia," she said. She is concerned about the lack of interest shown by the international community in this busy and dangerous migratory route. "These migrations between countries in the South are not considered important by political decision-makers, particularly in Europe. All that matters to [them] is that the migrants do not end up on [their] territory." She explains why Ethiopians represent the highest number of people trying to reach the Persian Gulf countries, saying: "Ethiopia is going through a very difficult time. The Tigray War (2020-2022) is over, but instability persists and there is a lot of poverty." Caught in conflict Crossing the Red Sea or the Gulf of Aden in rickety boats isn't the only danger for migrants making the journey. In Yemen, a country gripped by civil war, they face an increased risk of violence. "In addition to the war situation, which results in a lack of food and great insecurity, the exploitation of migrants and refugees is common," said de Regt. "People are sometimes kidnapped by gangs and migrant women are sexually exploited by criminals." Last April, East African migrants also found themselves caught up in the military escalation between the United States and Houthi rebels in Yemen. Sixty-eight people were killed and dozens more injured in US strikes on a migrant detention centre in Sanaa, a rebel stronghold. In 2023, the NGO Human Rights Watch revealed that Saudi border guards killed hundreds of Ethiopian migrants and asylum seekers attempting to cross the border between Yemen and Saudi Arabia, between March 2022 and June 2023. "The guards at the checkpoints shoot randomly at migrants trying to cross. Crossing the Saudi border is a very risky undertaking," said de Regt. While some manage to find work in Saudi Arabia, many migrants remain in a precarious situation, at risk of arrest and deportation. "Sometimes men are deported to Ethiopia – but they start again, even though they know how risky the journey is," she said. "They will start again because they are desperate."
Yemen Online
5 days ago
- General
- Yemen Online
7 Ethiopian migrants die on boat to Yemen
Seven Ethiopian migrants died of hunger and thirst after their boat's engine failed in the Red Sea, the United Nations migration agency said Wednesday. The International Organization for Migration (IOM) said the boat, carrying 250 people -- among them 82 children -- from Somalia to Yemen, arrived on Tuesday after a gruelling week-long journey. "The boat is reported to have experienced engine failure 100 nautical miles into its journey," the IOM said in a statement. "What should have been a 24-hour journey took a week, relying on wind and paddling," it added. "Seven of the migrants died of hunger and thirst en route." It comes just days after a shipwreck off Yemen that killed more than 90 migrants, most of them Ethiopians. Days afterwards, Ethiopian officials urged the country's citizens to "avoid irregular routes". The Red Sea is among the deadliest routes for migrants in the world, claiming at least 558 lives in 2024, according to the IOM. Many flee poverty and conflict in Ethiopia in search of opportunities in wealthy Gulf countries, using war-torn Yemen as a transit point. Wednesday's group was met by an IOM medical team in Yemen. Some were transferred to a health clinic and later discharged in a stable condition. "These people have been through a week of hell on the high seas. They have been exploited, terrified and traumatised," said Abdusattor Esoev, the IOM's chief of mission in Yemen.
Egypt Independent
6 days ago
- General
- Egypt Independent
Over 60 African migrants killed and dozens missing after boat capsizes near Yemen, says UN
Cairo AP — A boat capsized Sunday in waters off Yemen's coast leaving 68 African migrants dead and 74 others missing, the UN's migration agency said. The tragedy was the latest in a series of shipwrecks off Yemen that have killed hundreds of African migrants fleeing conflict and poverty in hopes of reaching the wealthy Gulf Arab countries. The vessel, with 154 Ethiopian migrants on board, sank in the Gulf of Aden off the southern Yemeni province of Abyan early Sunday, Abdusattor Esoev, head of the International Organization for Migration in Yemen told The Associated Press. He said the bodies of 54 migrants washed ashore in the district of Khanfar, and 14 others were found dead and taken to a hospital morgue in Zinjibar, the provincial capital of Abyan on Yemen's southern coast. Only 12 migrants survived the shipwreck, and the rest were missing and presumed dead, Esoev said. In a statement, the Abyan security directorate described a massive search-and-rescue operation given the large number of dead and missing migrants. It said many dead bodies were found scattered across a wide area of the shore. Despite more than a decade of civil war, Yemen is a major route for migrants from East Africa and the Horn of Africa trying to reach the Gulf Arab countries for work. Migrants are taken by smugglers on often dangerous, overcrowded boats across the Red Sea or Gulf of Aden. Hundreds of migrants have died or gone missing in shipwrecks off Yemen in recent months, including in March when two migrants died and 186 others were missing after four boats capsized off Yemen and Djibouti, according to the IOM. More than 60,000 migrants arrived in Yemen in 2024, down from 97,200 in 2023, probably because of greater patrolling of the waters, according to an IOM report in March.
