Yemen: At least 13 dead and 14 missing immigrants in a wreck off Taize

At least 13 people died and 14 others are missing in after a boat sank off its coast . “Thirty people died tragically and 14 others are missing after the shipwreck of a ship carrying migrants off the coast of the Taize province to Yemen on Tuesday,” the International Immigration Organization noted. The ship, which had departed Djibouti, carried 25 immigrants from Ethiopia and two Yemeni citizens. 11 men and 2 women are among the confirmed dead, while investigations continue to identify missing persons, including the Yemenite captain and his assistant, the same source noted. DOM added that the causes of the wreck are not yet known. “This new tragedy tragically reminds us of the dangers facing migrants on this street,” Matt Huber said in charge of the IOM’s transition mission to Yemen. In July a boat with at least 45 refugees had been overturned off Taize. Only four survivors were spotted. Every year tens of thousands of immigrants from the Horn of Africa cross the Red Sea in an attempt to reach the rich Gulf states, leaving to escape conflicts, natural disasters or poverty. IOM recorded more than 97,200 immigrants arriving in Yemen in 2023, a figure much larger than the previous year. The immigrants who manage to reach Yemen are faced with other threats to their security in this poorest country on the Arab peninsula, where civil war has been raging for nearly ten years. Most then try to go to Saudi Arabia or other Gulf countries to work. According to the IOM, since 2014 at least 2,082 migrants have lost their lives or are missing on this migration route from eastern Africa and the Horn of Africa to the Gulf countries.