United Nations Radio

Another tragedy has occurred in the Gulf of Aden where 100 people are reported missing after being forced overboard by smugglers off the coast of Yemen.

The UN refugee agency, UNHCR, and its partners are looking for the people who were on a smuggling boat carrying 150 passengers that left the Somali port of Marera on Monday and spent three days crossing the Gulf of Aden.

UNHCR spokesman Ron Redmond says survivors of the voyage told the agency's team in Yemen that when the boat was five kilometers off the Yemen coast, smugglers forced all the passengers to swim to shore except twelve who were placed in a smaller boat.

"Survivors said they counted a total of 47 people reaching shore and later saw Yemeni authorities burring five bodies. By yesterday afternoon, the survivors were being transferred to UNHCR's reception centre in Yemen."

The UN refugee agency says that more than two hundred people have died trying to make the dangerous voyage across the Gulf of Aden to Yemen from war-torn Somalia.

Over 300 more remain missing, including from the latest incident.

This is Dianne Penn for United Nations Radio.

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