As many as 300 migrants may have died after a ship recently capsized off the coast of Yemen, highlighting the dangers of a long migration route from the Horn of Africa to the rich Gulf states in search of work, a UN official said on Thursday.
UN resident and humanitarian coordinator David Gressly said the immigration crisis was increasing the pressure on an already serious humanitarian situation in Yemen.
Gressly made his comments during a webinar sponsored by the National Council on US-Arab relations. It came just a week after residents reported seeing a number of human bodies being washed in Ras al-Arah, on Yemen’s Red Sea coast.
The coastline is notorious for smuggling migrants from the Horn of Africa to Yemen.
The dangerous sea voyage from the Horn of Africa countries including Ethiopia, Eritrea, Somalia and Djibouti is part of a long migration route to take people north through Yemen to the rich Gulf states for work.
Yemen has been embroiled in violence since a Saudi coalition intervened against Houthis in 2015, in which 80% of Yemen’s people needed help.
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