Politics Migrants forced overboard: 48 dead off Djibouti

According to the UN Organization for Migration (IOM) in Geneva, at least 48 refugees have died off the coast of Djibouti in the Gulf of Aden. More than 100 are still missing.

Smugglers had forced people to jump into the water in the open sea and asked them to swim ashore, the IOM reported.

A total of 320 people were on two boats. 99 had reached the coast by swimming and 55 had been rescued at sea. At least 48 people lost their lives, including a mother whose four-month-old baby survived. The others were still missing. The search operation was still ongoing in the afternoon.

According to survivors, the people wanted to return from Yemen to Djibouti, the IOM reported. People from Somalia and Eritrea in particular are on the route. They want to get to Saudi Arabia or the Gulf States via Yemen in search of work or return to their home country from there.

According to the IOM, never before have so many migrants died between Africa and Yemen as this year. In June alone, 196 people drowned there.