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IOM said some 2,000 migrants have arrived in Djibouti from Yemen in the past three weeks. [File: Nariman El-Mofty/AP]
At least eight migrants have drowned and 12 are missing after human smugglers forced them off a boat near Djibouti, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM).
Another 14 migrants survived and are receiving medical care, according to a statement.
All of the migrants were believed to be Ethiopians returning to the Horn of Africa after failing to reach Saudi Arabia via Yemen due to Covid-19 border closures.
The pandemic and conflict in Yemen have made travel to the Gulf nations more dangerous and some migrants have returned.
“At least eight migrants have died and 12 are missing at sea after being forced off a boat by smugglers off the coast of Djibouti, Horn of Africa,” said IOM spokeswoman Yvonne Ndege.
“According to surviving eyewitnesses, assisted by IOM, three smugglers violently forced the young men and women out of the ship while they were still at sea. Smugglers are known to exploit migrants on this route in this way, many of whom have to pay or their families have to pay large sums to facilitate the journey.
Eight bodies reached land and were buried by the Djiboutian authorities.
IOM said some 2,000 migrants have arrived in Djibouti from Yemen in the past three weeks.
“This tragedy is a wake-up call,” added Ndege, warning that more tragedies could occur as hundreds of migrants leave Yemen every day on the precarious boat trip through the Bab al-Mandeb Strait.
In 2017, up to 50 migrants from Somalia and Ethiopia were “deliberately drowned” when a smuggler forced them into the sea off the coast of Yemen.
And in 2018, at least 30 refugees and migrants were killed when a ship sank off Yemen, survivors reported gunfire.
