(Medecins Sans Frontieres) MADRID, SPAIN — Thousands of Somalis and Ethiopians risk their lives every year to cross the Gulf of Aden to escape from conflict and extreme poverty. The trip is fraught with danger as people are exposed to violence from the smugglers and receive little assistance upon their arrival in Yemen.
In its report, “No Choice”, MSF has documented the conditions of the perilous journey and calls for increased assistance for the thousands of refugees, asylum seekers and migrants fleeing their home countries.
Due to the escalation of the conflict in Somalia and the drought affecting the Horn of Africa, the numbers of new arrivals are increasing. In 2007, according to the UN, 30,000 people embarked on the dangerous trip. During the first five months of 2008 over 20,000 arrived in Yemen. Many of them never made it: in 2007 over 1,400 dead and missing were reported; so far, in 2008, 400 did not reach the shores of Yemen alive.
The report, released on the eve of World Refugee Day, is based on over 250 testimonies gathered by the MSF teams in Yemen since September 2007.
The refugees arrive exhausted, many of them sick and emotionally shattered. Boats of 8 to 10-meters designed for 30 or 40 people at the most are packed with over 100 passengers. People are forced to sit in the same position without moving during the two or three days of the journey and are, in most cases, deprived of water and food.
The smugglers are extremely brutal, beating anyone who dares to move.
Conditions are even worse for people stuck in the holds of the boat – tiny, windowless spaces meant for storage. Twenty people or more are crowded in these spaces, literally sitting on top of each other. Conditions are so harsh that deaths during the trip were reported from one third of the boats. The main causes were severe beatings, lack of food and water and suffocation from being in the hold. Several of those interviewed also reported cases in which the smugglers threw passengers, including children, overboard.
Landing on the Yemen coast is very dangerous: to avoid being caught by the military, many boats arrive at night and do not come close to the shore. The smugglers force the passengers to jump into deep water. Many people drown: they cannot swim, are unable to move because of numbness or are disoriented and cannot find the coast.
Most of those interviewed are aware of the risks, but told MSF that they had no choice, this being their only survival strategy to escape from violence and destitution. For those who reach the shores of Yemen after the perilous trip, the plight is not over. Yemen is a country with limited resources and assistance is scarce.
“To date, humanitarian response has been inadequate. More international assistance is urgently needed and donor countries should commit themselves politically and financially. The response capacity of those who provide assistance to the refugees needs to be increased and more organisations should intervene”, said Alfonso Verdú, MSF General Coordinator in Yemen.
2 thoughts on “Ethiopians, Somalis face grave risks crossing the Gulf of Aden”
The tplfwoyanae invading forces must leave Ethiopia and Somalia.
The somali and Ethiopian victims have no choice but to leave their respective country chiefly because their caring and loving countries are under control of the tplfwoyanae invading, looting, and murderer forces.
It has been said that which has been true is true. when the tplfwoyane invading forces came into Ethiopia,they had no a penny but had a lot of bullets and guns to murder and loot Ethiopians; today, they are not only brutal murderers they are also wealthy and millionairs.
In order to cultivate and grow a generation of meaningless youths,citizens engaged in conflict, and fragile society, as their one of the primeries goals, the tplfwoyanae killers dismantled the families in every housholds and drove thousands of chidren into street and made them homeless.
Now, it is seventeen plus years since the murderers came into Ethiopia and had exported thousands of cattle and girls to the middle east to return the favor and meet the demands of the already satsfied customers whose distinct tast for girls and meat is incomparable.
Not only the tplfwoyanae invaders are gradually burdening millions of Ethiopians with the loan they are borrowing in the name of the poor while stealing a good portion of the money borrowed and keep it in their living bank account, they themselves were burndened with a debt of promises to their arab supporters while they were fighting against Ethiopia and Ethiopians. Arabs supported tplfwoyane forces with weapons and cash.
The story of 17 plus years is the economy of the tplfwoyanae looters. Nearly every major manufaturing industries, service sectors, banks, insurances, and other major businesses are owned, controlled, and run by members of the crimefamilies, their associates, close friends, and greedy and blind loyalists. The 10% economy growth creatd the affluent tplfwoayane memberrs while the economy of millions of Ethiopians reamained stagnant for the last 17 plus years.
when there is no chance for the young and youth to be in schools and collages in their country, when there is no freedom and security, and where there is no wealth and resource sharing, what else is available for these unfortunate young citizens who died in the sea while attempting to escape from the brutality of tplfwoyanae?
How come the Ethiopians are incompetent of fighting the weyane regime while the small no. of smalian population is resisting the weyane terrorist army. We Ethiopians should start something lets minimize our talks and let’s spend more time on practical things. I will eventually start a part time job to support these kinds of groups as I did back in 2005/06 to support the kinijit struggle, oh. Apparently my money was taken by shalka yoseph. Anyway, let’s start supporting the struggle by any means, now it seems like to to UDJ and G7 …who are ready to fight the weyane from inside and outside of Ethiopia. Actually the so called eyasu group supported by hailu shawel should restrain from any attacking actions on the major opposition groups. Debeteraw, ethiolion….time out take a little break ….