The UN refugee agency, UNHCR, said on Friday that it is searching for about 100 people reported missing in the Gulf of Aden after being forced overboard by smugglers off the coast of Yemen.

The UNHCR said in a statement that some of the 47 known survivors told the agency team in Yemen that a smuggling boat carrying about 150 passengers departed the Somali port of Marera, near Bossaso, on Monday and spent three days crossing the Gulf of Aden.

"Upon arriving 5 km off the Yemen coast, all but 12 of the passengers were forced overboard," the UN refugee agency said in a statement.

The 12 were placed in a smaller boat, while the others had to try to swim to shore. Survivors said they counted a total of 47 people reaching shore, and later saw Yemeni authorities burying five bodies, it said.

The survivors were being transferred to UNHCR's Mayfa reception centre on Thursday and the UN fears most of the migrants are Somalis, although some boats have also transported Ethiopian or Eritrean migrants from Somalia.

There has been a recent upsurge in people smuggling across the Gulf of Aden from war-torn Somalia.

So far this year, about 32,000 people have arrived in Yemen after making the perilous voyage aboard smugglers' boats.

At least 230 people have died and an estimated 365 remain missing, including from the latest incident.

(Xinhua News Agency October 11, 2008)