Dozens drown trying to leave Somalia, says UNHCR

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Up to 66 people are believed to have drowned after being forced overboard by smugglers into deep seas off the coast of Yemen in the worst incident of its kind so far this year, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said Tuesday. Survivors said they buried 28 bodies on the beach, while 29 Ethiopians and nine Somalis were still missing. They had been aboard two boats carrying 244 people that had left the Somali coastal town of Bossaso on Saturday to cross the Gulf of Yemen.

Passengers were forced to jump into the sea when they reached an area off Hawrat Al Shatee in Yemen.UNHCR spokesman Ron Redmond said the death toll appeared to have risen though the numbers of people making the perilous crossing had remained constant.An estimated 20,000 people tried to cross to Yemen so far this year and a total of 439 have died. A further 489 were missing and feared dead. In 2006, 26,000 people undertook the voyage for which they paid between 50 and 150 dollars.

Redmond said the UNHCR heard repeated stories of passengers being beaten and raped. People were packed so tightly into the boats, at times inside the hold near the engines that they suffocated. Many victims end up drowning when they forced to jump into very deep seas offshore to avoid coastal patrols.