At least 80 illegal Somali immigrants die on the Yemen coast

At least 80 Somali migrants from Bossaso harbor in south Somalia died Friday when their boat, carrying about 126 passengers sank Friday in Mukala, on the Yemeni coast, while trying to escape the violence in the country, a Somali embassy official in Yemen said here Saturday.
About 45 of the migrants were rescued by fishermen early Friday morning.

« It was around mid night when the boat they were travelling in sank. Those rescued were handed over to officials of the United Nations refugee agency UNHCR, » said Hussein Hagi Ahmed, an official of Somali embassy in Yemen.

Some migrants try to cross from Somalia to Yemen, which they see as a gateway to other parts of the Middle East and the West because it is cheaper compared to other means of travel.
More than 27 people, including women and children, drowned in the Gulf of Aden as they were trying to cross from Somalia to Yemen last week, according to Somali embassy officials in Yemen.

It is reported that every week, at least two to three boats carrying such illegal immigrants reach the Yemeni coast, while many more people die on the way from suffocation and lack of food, even if their boat succeeds in crossing the sea.

Somalia was plunged into anarchy after the 1991 ouster of dictator Mohammed Siad Barre, and since then, many Somali migrants have died trying to cross to Yemen looking for better life.

HO/daj/APA 01-12-2007
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