GENEVA (AFP) — Thirty-five Ethiopian and Somali migrants have drowned after a smugglers’ boat crossing the Gulf of Aden from Somalia capsized, the United Nations {www:refugee} agency said in a statement Thursday.

“By midday Thursday, 35 bodies had been recovered by UNHCR?s partner agency, the Society of Human Solidarity. The remaining passengers are believed to have made it to shore,” said the UNHCR.

The ill-fated boat, which was carrying about 117 people, had departed Monday from Somalia.

Some 387 boats and 19,622 people have arrived in Yemen this year after making the perilous journey across the Gulf of Aden from the Horn of Africa, fleeing civil war, {www:poverty} and famine.

“A total of 131 people have died and at least 66 others are presumed missing at sea,” said the UNHCR.