More than 100 Somali and Ethiopian migrants drowned off the coast of Yemen after a smuggler's boat capsized earlier this week in the Gulf of Aden, the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) said on Friday.

 

The Geneva-based agency said 107 bodies had been found along a remote stretch of the Yemen coastline after one out of four smuggler's boats approaching the coastline capsized far from the shore on Monday. Survivors said at least five people remain missing.

 

According to witnesses, the capsized smuggler's boat was carrying 120 Somalis and Ethiopians. After it overturned, a second smuggling vessel, also carrying 120 people, forced all its passengers into the sea, picked up the smugglers from the capsized vessel and headed back into the Gulf of Aden. The 240 people were left in the high seas.

 

"The Somalis said they fled their homes during and following the end of recent hostilities between government forces and the Islamic Courts Union," UNHCR spokesman Ron Redmond told reporters in Geneva.

 

(Xinhua News Agency February 17, 2007)