GENEVA, July 10 (UNHCR) – Rough seas have put a temporary halt to illegal crossings of the Gulf of Aden, which by UNHCR estimate saw at least 367 desperate people lose their lives in the first six months of the year
The sailing season for smuggling Ethiopian and Somali refugees across the Gulf of Aden from Somalia to Yemen traditionally ends in late June and restarts in September, when the conditions are better. The thousands of people willing to make the risky voyage seek safety or a better life.
For the first six months of this year, UNHCR in Yemen recorded the arrival of 77 smuggling boats carrying more than 8,600 refugees, asylum seekers and migrants – mostly Somalis and Ethiopians.
During that period, at least 367 people died making the crossing, while 118 remain missing. That makes it much more deadly than last year. For the same six-month period in 2006, a total of 107 boats arrived with 11,723 people aboard. A total of 266 died and 66 were recorded as missing in the first half of last year.
Many of those who lost their lives – after paying about US$50 to make the perilous voyage – were forced by ruthless smugglers to disembark offshore while still in deep water and drowned trying to swim to shore. Others were beaten to death by club-wielding smugglers, or attacked by sharks after being thrown overboard. Many bodies were buried on Yemeni beaches by local fishermen.
“You can only imagine how desperate people must be to brave such a rough and risky journey to reach the other side. But this also goes to show how misled and exploited they are by the smugglers, and how much more has to be done to make sure they are better informed,” said Radhouane Nouicer, director of UNHCR’s Middle East and North Africa bureau.
And the refugee agency fears things will get worse when the sailing season resumes in September. “I expect that the situation after the temporary lull will continue to be bad, if not worse,” said Adel Jasmin, UNHCR representative in Yemen. “I have little reason to believe that the number of arrivals will decrease after the summer,” he added.
For all of 2006, nearly 29,000 people were recorded arriving in Yemen in 237 boats. At least 328 people died and 310 were recorded as missing for the year.
But while smuggling in the Gulf of Aden has come to a temporary halt, it is only just starting again in the Mediterranean. Despite a drop in irregular arrivals in Italy by 31 percent compared to the first six months of last year, the number of dead and missing – at least 200 in the Strait of Sicily in June alone – shows how dangerous it is to cross the Mediterranean.
UNHCR has repeatedly expressed its concerns about the situation in the Gulf of Aden, the Mediterranean and other waters, as some of those who risk their lives making such crossings are refugees and asylum seekers.
In late 2006, irregular travel to Yemen became increasingly difficult for refugees, asylum seekers and migrants alike as a result of increased crackdowns on smugglers in Somalia’s Bosaso region and heightened security patrols along the Yemen coastline. Smugglers simply started taking new routes to Yemen. Various new drop-off points were identified along the 400-kilometre coastline, turning the voyage into a three-day ordeal rather than two.
The solution lies not only in cracking down on smugglers, but also on tackling the root causes of persecution, poverty and conflict that prompt irregular movers to leave their homes.
Moreover, countries need help in managing these mixed migration flows in a manner that would ensure protection for those who need it and a safe return for those who do not. Last but not least, anyone in distress at sea should be rescued, allowed to disembark and given access to proper screening procedures upon arrival.
Last week, UNHCR and the International Maritime Organization called for more action to prevent further loss of life. In 2006, UNHCR presented a Ten-Point Plan of Action on Refugee Protection and Mixed Migration that sets out a number of measures to assist states in dealing with the problem.
“We hope that the various actions presented in the ten point plan, will help in making a difference and controlling better the mixed migration flows … but actions will have to be taken both in the countries of origin, departure and arrival,” said UNHCR’s Jasmin.
The United Nations High Commissioner on Refugees (UNHCR) has used a halt in the annual flow of Somali boatpeople travelling across the Gulf of Aden to Yemen to draw attention to their plight and call for more action to help those who endure such harsh journeys.
UNHCR Jennifer Pagonis told reporters today in Geneva that the flow across the Gulf of Aden “to seek safety or a better life has temporarily halted because seas are too rough to make the crossing in July and August.”
Still, each year between September and the following June, “irregular travel to Yemen has also become increasingly difficult as a result of increased crackdowns on smugglers in Somalia’s Bosaso region and heightened security patrols along the Yemen coastline,” she said.
For those refugees who do secure a trip, the risks of death or sickness have increased. Because of a need to find new routes, trips are more indirect and take around three days rather than the regular two.
The treatment of the refugees by smugglers who have managed to remain active despite the crackdown is increasingly horrendous, Ms. Pagonis noted. After paying $50, many refugees are forced to disembark while still in deep water, where most are then beaten with clubs, drown or are attacked by sharks.
The solution lies not only in cracking down on smugglers, but on tackling the root causes of persecution, poverty and conflict that drive so many people to leave their homes and risk such perilous sea journeys, Ms. Pagonis said.
Countries receiving migrants should have more help in managing the inflows so that people who need protection can get it and those who do not can return home safely.
She stressed that anyone in distress at sea should be rescued, allowed to disembark and given access to proper screening procedures upon arrival.
For the first six months of this year, UNHCR has recorded the arrival of 77 smuggling boats carrying more than 8,600 refugees, asylum seekers and migrants, mainly Somalis and Ethiopians, across the Gulf of Aden.
Although these figures are below those equivalent statistics from the first half of 2006, when over 11,700 people made the journey, the trip has become more deadly: at least 367 people have been killed so far this year, compared to 266 for the same period last year.
Ms. Pagonis added that while smuggling in the Gulf of Aden has come to a temporary seasonal halt, it has started again in the Mediterranean Sea.
“UNHCR has repeatedly expressed its concerns about the situation in the Gulf of Aden, the Mediterranean and other waters, as some of those who risk their lives making such crossing are refugees and asylum seekers,” she said.
The number of irregular arrivals into Italy fell by 31 per cent compared to the first six months of last year, but in June alone 200 people were reported dead or missing reported in the Strait of Sicily.
Last year UNHCR presented a Ten-Point Plan of Action on Refugee Protection and Mixed Migration that sets out a number of measures to assist States in dealing with the issue.
Gulf Air and Ethiopian Airlines have entered a strategic code-sharing agreement opening up routes and services to each other in their respective networks effective July 1, this year.
PRESS RELEASE
‘We have entered a new era of operational efficiency with the implementation of our new refined network and the code share agreement with Ethiopian Airlines is a key strategy as we are constantly looking at ways to strengthen our reach, and building alliances (codesharing) with other airlines,’ says Executive Vice President Network Hashim Mahmood.
The agreement, which will cover as a first phase the routing between Addis Ababa and Bahrain, comes as Gulf Air introduced a totally revamped flight schedule beginning July. The new network offers as many as 588 flights every week in the Middle East with more non-stop flights than any other airline in the region.
‘We have the strongest network in the Middle East and our counterpart, the Ethiopian Airlines, have the strongest network in Africa, allowing both carriers to tap into each others’ markets,’ says Mr.Mahmood.
Gulf Air already has code-sharing agreements with American Airlines, Thai Airways, BMI, Cyprus Airways, Egyptair, Philippine Airlines, Indian Airlines, KLM, Malaysian Airlines, Oman Air, Royal Jordanian, Saudi Arabian Airlines, Yemenia Airways, Bangladesh Airlines Biman.
Mr.Busera Awel, VP Commercial Ethiopian Airlines says on his part that ‘Ethiopian Airlines already has different cooperation agreements with other African and European carriers even though this is the first code share it has with a Gulf region carrier. The partnership with Gulf Air will allow our customers to have easy connection to other Gulf, Middle East and Asian points from Bahrain and at the same time enable us to strengthen our presence in the region.’
WASHINGTON — For some, everything that could go wrong for Somalia has now come to pass. For others, considering how rapidly Mogadishu is turning into Baghdad, the worst – both for the country and the region – is yet to come. However, there is no disputing that, with each passing day, it is becoming more and more evident that Somalia’s Ethiopian [Woyanne] occupation is neither paving the road toward a reconciliation, nor forging a way forward.
Seven months after disrupting what was widely recognized as a “semblance of peace” that enabled Mogadishu to experience glimpses of normalcy, the Transitional Federal Government (TFG) that rode into the Somali capital on Ethiopian [Woyanne] tanks is continuing on its brutal and self-sabotaging path.
Nonetheless, Somali Prime Minister Ali Mohammed Gedi will probably remember June 26 – the date of his recent unofficial visit to Washington, DC en route to New York to address the UN Security Council – as the most politically-challenging day of his three-year career.
Gedi’s visit opened with an off-the-record meeting hosted by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). Along with the Somali prime minister, the center had invited a number of academicians, policy researchers, prominent Somali activists, and organizational leaders.
At the gathering Gedi was rigorously scrutinized on three specific issues: “security, governance, and reconciliation.” He scrambled desperately to provide cogent answers to some of the questions. At several points, he had to rely entirely on his non-Somali spin-doctors who passed him notes.
Asked whether or not his government – in light of the renewed violence and chaos – was capable of expanding its power beyond Mogadishu, and if it possessed the capacity and vision to move Somalia out of its current turmoil, Gedi’s response was, expectedly, “yes.”
“It was our strategic position to control the city in a peaceful manner,” he noted, leaving many in the audience in a state of disbelief and dismay by adding: “We have succeeded in bringing peace to the city with the support of the Ethiopian government.”
When asked how Ethiopia [Woyanne] could play a part in resolving the crisis, considering its lingering political animosity and suspicion in relation to Somalia, Gedi answered that while it was “true that there was a [hostile] history between Somalia and Ethiopia … that history has changed, and that is the perception of the Somali people.”
Gedi was also challenged on the corruption rife in his “warlord-infested government” and how these militia chiefs — such as Abdi Awale Qaybdiid, with a 17-year record of killing, displacing, and starving countless Somalis, who allegedly led the fighting resulting in the deaths of 18 US Rangers and more than 1,000 Somalis, as depicted in the film Black Hawk Down — could ever be part of the solution.
Additionally, he was questioned about Mohammed Dheere, a particularly brutal warlord and close relative of Gedi’s, who vacated his parliament seat to enable Gedi — who was never elected via clan representation — to become prime minister, in return for Dheere being appointed mayor of Mogadishu, responsible for restoring peace and order there.
Brushing off such queries, Gedi told the CSIS gathering that only time would tell if the TFG had become a warlord-infested government.
Naturally, he did not remind the audience of a statement he had made when he appointed the ruthless Dheere Mogadish mayor that “This is not the time for soft, reflective consensus builders … We need strong leaders who can implement their programs. Mohammed Dheere is the right man at the right time.”
Indeed, the mayor of Mogadishu has his own private militia to implement his program.
But perhaps the question that politically cornered Gedi the most, lending a human face to what has become a routine abuse of power, was the one raised by one of the Somali activists present at the CSIS meeting.
“Mr. prime minister, since the Ethiopian [Woyanne] invasion, Somalis have suffered; young men, businessmen, and the leaders of the civil society [have become] a daily target. People were, and still are, being taken out of their homes in the dead of the night. NGO [non-governmental organization] officers are being detained and their basic rights violated.
“A member of our organization is currently in Somalia and has, sadly, detailed to us the violation of your personal security forces that invaded their NGO and took everything that was movable. You know these people as they are your neighbors. My question is: when will these violent efforts of silencing the civil society [organizations] end?”
In response, Gedi resorted to his routine equivocation and baseless accusations claiming that “some of these NGOs had thousands of tons of weapons which we found, and that should not be.” He failed to point out that no one has since been charged or convicted on such grounds.
Later that same day, a coalition of 11 diaspora-based Somali groups organized a rally outside the US State Department, marking the first time since the bloody fratricide that such a body, transcending Somalia’s clan and regional divisions, had been formed.
Six coalition delegates later met with US Deputy Assistant Secretary for African Affairs James Swan, expressing their concerns regarding Somalia’s Ethiopian [Woyanne] occupation, the recent massacre and continued brutality in Mogadishu, the violation of the system of checks and balances that had led to the unconstitutional termination of the “free parliamentarians” (opposition members of parliament), the humanitarian and human rights abuses, and the “extraordinary renditions” taking place in Somalia that had been condemned by the human rights group Amnesty International.
The coalition delegates stressed that genuine peace and reconciliation in Somalia hinged upon resolving these problems – something they said they would reiterate in an official letter to the UN secretary-general and members of the Security Council.
Abdulkadir Abdirahman is a Somali-American Community Activist based in Washington, DC. He submitted this commentary to the Middle East Times.
Comedian CHRIS TUCKER was left amazed during a visit to Ethiopia with rocker BONO – because he was recognised more than the U2 superstar. Tucker and Bono visited Africa together in 2002 as part of a fact-finding mission to witness the effects of charity donations. The Rush Hour star tells Playboy magazine, “I was with Bono in Ethiopia. Surprisingly, they were more familiar with me. He’s way more visible than I am around the world, but, in Africa, they were like, ‘Chris! Chris Tucker!’ “It was something to know that in some places more people recognised me than the biggest rock star in the world.”
The United States has said it is “surprised” at the call by an Ethiopian prosecutor for the death penalty for 38 opposition leaders.
A US spokesman urged the Ethiopian government and the High Court to “promote much-needed reconciliation” in final sentencing.
The US is a close ally of Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Meles Zenawi and helped his forces oust Islamists in Somalia.
Ethiopia’s government has always stressed that the courts are independent and denies that the trial is political.
Relatives of the 38 Coalition for Unity and Democracy (CUD) leaders say they have signed a document which might pave the way for them to be freed.
The BBC’s Elizabeth Blunt in Addis Ababa says this could be some form of apology or plea for mercy.
“We call on the Ethiopian government and High Court to take action in making a final sentencing determination, which is consistent with the greater objectives of bolstering the rule of law and promoting much-needed reconciliation,” said US State Department spokesman Sean McCormack.
Armed rebellion
Among the 38 are the entire CUD leadership, several of the capital’s elected MPs and city councillors, including Berhanu Negga, mayor-elect of Addis Ababa.
Prosecutor Abraham Tetemke said they had tried to bring down the government when he called for the death penalty on Monday.
Some 193 people were killed in protests at alleged vote-rigging.
Most of the dead were protesters, killed by security forces.
The judge had been due to pass sentence on Monday but he adjourned the hearing for a week to allow those convicted the chance to respond to the prosecutor’s statement.
They have so far refused to recognise the court or enter any defence – the reason why the judges said they were forced to find them guilty as charged last month.
Their offences included outrage against the constitution and, in the case of party leader, Hailu Shawel, and four others, inciting, organising and leading armed rebellion.
Hundreds of thousands took part in demonstrations complaining of fraud and rigging in the elections won by Prime Minister Meles’ party.
An independent inquiry carried out by an Ethiopian judge concluded that the police had used excessive force.
He went on to accuse them of carrying out a massacre. The judge later fled Ethiopia, saying he had been put under pressure to change his findings and had received death threats.
Tarnished
The government points out that it introduced multiparty elections to Ethiopia after years of military rule.
In the elections, the opposition made huge gains but says it was cheated out of victory.
Three months ago, a judge threw out controversial charges of attempted genocide and treason against another 111 people arrested after the election protests.
The violence and the charges of election fraud have tarnished Mr Meles’ image as a favourite of Western donors and one of a new wave of reforming African leaders.
