SANAA (Reuters) – Seven African migrants drowned and a further seven are missing and presumed dead after smugglers forced passengers off a boat in deep sea off Yemen, the U.N. refugee agency said.

Survivors told the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees that the boat, carrying 72 Somalis and Ethiopians, was far from the Yemeni coast when smugglers started to force them off, the agency said in a statement dated Saturday.

“I owe my life to my brother who helped me swim ashore,” one of the 58 survivors told UNHCR staff at a transit camp.

Last year 50,000 people, mostly from Somalia and Ethiopia, took rickety smugglers’ ships across the Gulf of Aden, which is on the sea route from Europe to the Middle East and Asia via the Suez Canal.

Most are thought to be seeking jobs in the Middle East, or fleeing political turmoil in Somalia or drought and food shortages in Ethiopia.

UNHCR said 350 boats and 17,936 people have arrived in Yemen this year after crossing the Gulf of Aden from the Horn of Africa. To date, 116 people have been reported dead and 66 are missing at sea.

Survivors of the latest incident said their boat had left on Wednesday from near the Somali town of Bossasso.

A Yemeni partner of the refugee agency buried the 7 bodies which were washed ashore and gave survivors food and water on arrival before transporting them to Ahwar reception camp, where they would be registered.

(Reporting by Mohammed Sudam, writing by Sam Cage; editing by Thomas Atkins)