by Hans de Vreij*

18-12-2007

Bodies washed ashore - it seems to be a familiar picture along the coast of Yemen. Last weekend, another 200 or so migrants and refugees from the Horn of Africa drowned there. By chance, a few of the dead were spotted by a Spanish team from the organisation Doctors Without Borders, who immediately sounded the alarm.

Every year, thousands of people from countries such as Ethiopia, Somalia and the separatist regions of Somaliland and Puntland try to reach the safety of Yemen. The vast majority of them pay hefty amounts of money to people smugglers to take them across the sea.

The shortest route is the Bab al Mandab, the 27 km wide strait between Djibouti and Yemen. But the smugglers also use longer, and much more dangerous routes. This year, an estimated 28,000 migrants and refugees have already crossed the sea in this manner.

Shocking event

The Spanish branch of Doctors Without Borders offers direct help on the coast to the people who arrive there. Last Saturday they knew that a boat full of migrants was on its way to the coast. But as soon as the team arrived, they were met with a shocking spectacle, as Sylvia Moriana, project leader in Yemen, explained:

"On Saturday they found 56 drowned people. There was a boat arriving and there were about 148 persons in that boat. And then, when they arrived at the beach, they could see only 49 survivors, and they found these 56 dead persons."

Then a second boat turned up on another stretch of coast after panic had broken out on board. The total number of dead in the two incidents was two hundred, according to UNHCR, the United Nations High Commission for Refugees. The total of deaths due to people smuggling in the Horn of Africa is estimated at more than a thousand so far this year, though reliable figures are not available.

Prepared to take the risk

In the countries of the Horn of Africa, the risk of traveling across to Yemen is well-known. Nevertheless, there are many prepared to take that risk, says Sylvia Moriana of Doctors Without Borders:

"They really don't have many choices, they don't have (...) safe options to flee from violence. And this is the saddest part of the story, because at the end, the only option they have is to risk their lives, even though they know that it is quite dangerous".

Once they have arrived in Yemen, what happens to them depends on the nationality of the refugee or migrant, explains Sylvia Moriana:

"They at least accept all the refugees from Somalia, which is quite good. The problem is more with non-Somalis, who are not are not recognized as refugees for the moment, and then they might be detained and deported."

Disgusting conditions

Doctors Without Borders mentions the disgusting conditions on board the old boats in which people are smuggled into Yemen. Two or three days without food or drink, two or three days stationary in the same place, simply because the boats are overcrowded. There are frequent cases of ill-treatment by the smugglers. Other sources mention that the people smugglers unload their 'cargo' much too far from the beach, with all the consequences that can cause.

Source: Radio Netherlands (RNW)