Things could hardly get any worse in war-torn Yemen, but at least 55 people have been killed and many more are missing after people traffickers threw migrants into the sea to escape arrest.
In the last two days some 300 migrants have been abandoned to drown, with bodies being washed up onto the beaches. Most of the victims are Somalis and Ethiopians.
“The team again, in the same area, was patrolling this morning and they found another boat or other survivors of the exactly the same modus operandi. [...] they were the same age, same profile, but they were dropped in the sea closer to the shores so more apparently survived,” said the UN’s Head of Mission in Yemen, Laurent De Boeck.
Fifty people died on Wednesday in a similar incident off the coast near Shabwa, and more keep coming says the UN.
50 migrants died after a smuggler threw them into the sea off the #Yemen coasthttps://t.co/8uNswx9Brc— Yemen Updates (@yemen_updates) 10 août 2017
“It ‘s the first time we have seen this. It’s maybe linked to the fact that there is reinforcement of control at the borders and that smugglers are panicking but the reaction is actually worse, because instead of preventing them entering they basically continue their business by killing people,” adds De Boeck.
A total of 484,733 suspected #cholera cases and 1,961 associated deaths have been reported in 298 districts in #Yemen since 27 April 2017. pic.twitter.com/o1cTOOm3jR— WHO Yemen (@WHOYemen) 10 août 2017
Most of the migrants appear to be heading for the rich Gulf states, with Yemen the easiest transit point, but with cholera raging there it seems it is a case of out of the frying pan and into the fire for these luckless people fleeing war zones and poverty.
A Syrian tells #Yemen by comics, Yazan Al-Saadi.. interesting! https://t.co/zI5gemBJMl— Yemen Updates (@yemen_updates) 10 août 2017
