Smugglers throw dozens of migrants into sea off Djibouti

DJIBOUTI, March 04 (YPA) – Smugglers threw dozens of African migrants off a boat deck off Djibouti coasts on Wednesday as they were on their way to Yemen hoping to enter Saudi Arabia to find work.

The boat, which was carrying 200 migrants, including children under the age of 18, had left Olipi in Djibouti at 2:00 am on Wednesday, according to Yvonne Ndege, spokeswoman for the U.N. International Organization for Migration (IOM).

Ndege reported that survivors said that after half an hour, the smugglers discovered that the boat was overloaded and threw at least 80 passengers into the sea.

The Organization said five bodies have been recovered and survivors are being treated in Djibouti.

“It is not clear yet which countries the migrants came from on this last trip, but it is most likely that they are from Ethiopia and Somalia,” Ndege added.

In October 2020, at least eight migrants drowned after smugglers forced them to jump from a boat near Djibouti.

In 2018, at least 30 migrants and refugees were killed when a boat capsized off Yemen, and survivors reported being shot.

In 2017, up to 50 migrants from Somalia and Ethiopia drowned when a smuggler forced them to jump into the sea off the Yemeni coast.

Drowning cases have become common in the waters off Djibouti, which usually include migrants from Ethiopia and Somalia trying to escape poverty and war in their countries in the hope of finding work in Saudi Arabia or the UAE.

YPA