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Immigrant death toll rises
18/12/2007 16:55 - (SA)
Geneva - About 200 African would-be immigrants are dead or missing after two boats they were travelling in sank off the coast of Yemen over the weekend, the United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR) said on Tuesday.
One boat with 148 people on board sank on Saturday near the Yemeni coast after an argument between traffickers in charge of the vessel, killing at least 58 people with 37 still missing, the UNHCR said.
The dead included 54 Ethiopians and four Somalis, the agency said.
Another boat with 270 passengers hit a rock and sank on Sunday as it was trying to evade a Yemeni security patrol. Only 173 passengers were able to swim to shore and the rest, including a number of children, remain missing.
"The survivors of the second boat told us that the traffickers were violent with them during the trip," said UNHCR spokesperson Astrid van Genderen Tort.
"The passengers were violently roughed up and one man, who could not bear the beating any longer, jumped overboard and drowned," she said.
The number of illegal immigrants traversing the Gulf of Aden shot up dramatically between September and December, UNHCR said.
More than 1 400 clandestine immigrants have died in the zone this year, while more than 28 300 people managed to reach the Yemeni coast on some 300 vessels.
The crossing takes two days at best and is made especially dangerous by shark-infested waters, strong currents and inhumane conditions on poorly-maintained vessels open to the elements.
In September, 67 boats made the crossing and 264 people died. A total of 77 vessels left Somali shores in October and 347 people died .
Stepped up patrols by the Yemeni coastguard led to fewer crossings in November but the number of lives lost increased, with 205 dead aboard 37 boats.
In December, 27 vessels have so far left Somalia and a total of 186 people have died.
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