At Least 76 Dead, Dozens Missing in Migrant Vessel Capsizing off Yemen

At least 76 people have died and dozens more remain missing after a migrant boat sank off Yemen's Gulf of Aden coastline, according to the International Organization for Migration. The vessel was attempting a crossing to Yemen, the starting point for established overland routes that migrants use to enter wealthier Gulf countries to look for employment. 

Officials in the southern Yemeni province of Abyan reported that the migrant vessel had been overloaded with passengers and had gone down in the Gulf of Aden in rough weather. 76 bodies have been recovered so far, including at least 54 that washed up on shore, and the number continued to rise through the day on Monday.

The fatalities exceed the capacity of the local morgue, so the bodies will be buried promptly, a local official told the New York Times. Dozens remain missing, and local search efforts are under way. 

12 survivors have been recovered, IOM Yemen official Abdusattor Esoev told media. Two Yemeni smugglers are reportedly among the living. 

The sea route in question is a northbound highway for citizens of Ethiopia, Somalia, Eritrea and other impoverished African states. Yemen is itself destitute and dangerous, and is not the destination: it serves as a waystation en route to Saudi Arabia and the UAE, where under-the-radar jobs for undocumented immigrants are available. Esoev told UPI that there should be normalized pathways for economic migrants to transit from distressed nations in the Horn of Africa to the stronger employment markets in the GCC states. A regularized process for labor migration would cut the dominant smuggling gangs out of the market, and remove the incentives for high-risk transport methods. 

"This route is predominantly controlled by smugglers and human-trafficking networks," Mixed Migration Centre researcher Ayla Bonfiglio told AFP. "Refugees and migrants have no other alternative but to hire their services."

The so-called Eastern Route is known for occasional disasters. In March, two migrant vessels went down off Dhubab, Yemen, killing all passengers - about 180 people. About 60-100,000 people attempt the crossing every year, including an increasing number of unaccompanied women and children, a change from a route typically used by working-age men. IOM puts the average number of disappearances and fatalities on the Yemen crossing about 200-300 annually.