MOSCOW (Sputnik) – Around 50 migrants are missing and at least five died after smugglers pushed about 180 migrants overboard off the coast of Yemen, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said in a press release on Thursday.
"Up to 180 migrants are reported to have been forced from a boat today (10/08) by smugglers off the coast of Yemen. Five bodies have been recovered so far and around 50 are reported missing," the press release said.
9 August 2017, 20:13 GMT
The incident occurred a day after another group of smugglers had pushed over 120 Somali and Ethiopian migrants out from a boat, leaving at least 50 people dead. Soon after the incident, the IOM discovered graves of 29 migrants on a beach in Shabwa, Yemen, during the routine patrol.
According to International Organization for Migration, about 55,000 migrants left the Horn of Africa via war-torn Yemen since January 2017, seeking to reach the Gulf states. Over 30,000 of them are under the age of 18 and came from Somalia and Ethiopia, while a third of them are said to be female.
