The International Organization for Migration (IOM) says at least 20 migrants have been killed after smugglers threw 80 overboard during a trip from Djibouti in East Africa to Yemen.
A statement said that “smugglers started shouting that there were too many on board” after the boat with 200 migrants, including children under 18, got off on Wednesday.
IOM says five bodies have been recovered and survivors are being treated in Djibouti. This has happened in the past when thousands of migrants continue to try to get from the Horn of Africa to Yemen and then on to rich Gulf countries.
The coronavirus pandemic and the resulting closed borders have slowed but not stopped the flow of migration.
It is not immediately clear which countries the migrants on this recent trip came from, but many make the trip from Ethiopia and Somalia. In October, at least eight migrants drowned after smugglers forced them off a boat near Djibouti.
In 2017, up to 50 migrants from Somalia and Ethiopia deliberately drowned when a smuggler forced them into the sea off the coast of Yemen. And in 2018, at least 30 migrants and refugees died when a boat capsized outside Yemen, with survivors reporting shots. .
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