Four African migrants drown off Yemeni coast

Four African migrants drowned on Friday after two boats carrying about 260 passengers forced them into the sea off the Yemeni eastern coast near Abyan, an official said.

The remaining Africans, mainly Somalis, survived the seas and made their way to the Ahwar reception center supported by the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR), the official told the Yemen Observer on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the press.

The official, who spoke on the phone from the site of the incident in Ahwar, denied the reports that about 70 people drowned, as reported by the international news media.

The reason behind the death of the four migrants was their inability to swim, the official said. “The smuggler boats usually cannot come close to shore for fear of the Yemeni coastguard, so they drop their refugees far from the shore,” he said.

African migrants coming to Yemen are between 12 and 14 thousand per year, according to UNHCR. Those already registered with the UNHCR numbered about 124,000 at the end of 2007, most of them Somalis. Yemeni authorities, however, say that the total number of African migrants in Yemen is closer to 750,000.

Recently, there has been an influx of Somalian and other East African immigrants due to the recent political developments in their respective countries. 

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