IOM Regional Director for East and Horn of Africa Mohammed Abdiker also tweeted on Tuesday that “dark images” of “children’s bodies on the ground” have now appeared. An abdication tweet earlier said at least 16 children (8 boys and 8 girls) were among the dead.
An IOM press release said on Tuesday that the 60 “migrants were being transported by human traffickers” from Yemen to Djibouti and that this was the second such tragedy “in just over a month”.
Last month’s tragedy saw smugglers throwing 80 people overboard due to overcrowding, causing at least 20 people to drown, according to the press release.
“Every year, tens of thousands of young African migrants in the region make the dangerous journey from countries such as Somalia and Ethiopia through Djibouti and Yemen in search of work in the Gulf,” according to the press release.
The cause of the crash is still unclear, although many trips are currently “being made aboard unsafe boats for migrants desperate to return home almost daily.”
Despite the dangers, “the number of migrants arriving in Djibouti continues to rise,” IOM said.
“In March, more than 2,343 migrants arrived from Yemen, compared to 1,900 in February. Most were trying to return home to Ethiopia and Somalia.”
The incessant conflict has left “tens of thousands of migrants in the Horn of Africa” trapped in Yemen with “many living in dangerous conditions, usually without access to food, shelter, health care and security,” he said. IOM.
Immigrants eager to return home are forced to pay smugglers “large sums of money to facilitate” their risky trips home, he added.
In Yemen alone, more than 6,000 people have signed up for voluntary humanitarian return (VHR) assistance to return home with IOM, which launched a $ 99 million call in March to help meet the needs of migrants. in the Horn of Africa and Yemen.