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Geneva, Aug 26 (Reuters) - A group of 30 Somali refugees heading for south Yemen by sea was forced at gunpoint to jump into the water as they neared the coast and several were feared drowned, the United Nations refugee agency said on Tuesday.
Only 18 of the party managed to reach the shore some 300 km (200 miles) east of Aden, according to the office of the High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).
"They (the survivors) told us that many of the passengers who were forced into the ocean could not swim and are believed to have drowned," UNHCR spokesman Kris Janowski said.
The agency said that the boat, sailing from Marer in Somalia's northeastern Puntland region, was carrying around 80 people but some 50 refugees had refused to jump despite being beaten by the crew. It was not known what happened to them.
The incident, which occurred a week ago, was the latest "unconscionable" act involving Somali boat captains, who offer to ferry would-be refugees across the Gulf of Aden to Yemen in search of a better life, the agency said.
Passengers were often forced into the sea while still some way off shore by captains seeking to evade Yemeni coastal patrols, it added.
The UNHCR estimates that there are more than 70,000 refugees in Yemen, most of them Somalis. The Yemeni government puts the figure at more than 165,000.
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