Smugglers toss hundreds of refugees to sharks
POSTED: 4:06 p.m. EDT, March 26, 2007

Story Highlights• 29 refugees killed, 71 missing after 450 thrown into sea
• Smugglers trying to flee Yemeni security patrol
• U.N. agency reports refugees raped, beaten, victims of theft
• Thousands of refugees trying to escape harsh conditions of Somalia, Ethiopia


GENEVA, Switzerland (AP) -- The number of people confirmed dead after smugglers forced hundreds of refugees overboard off the coast of Yemen has risen to 29, the U.N. refugee agency said Monday.

Seventy-one people are missing.

Knife-wielding smugglers forced 450 Somalis and Ethiopians overboard into stormy seas along a remote stretch of Yemen coastline at Ras-Alkalb in the Gulf of Aden last Thursday, the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees said in a statement.

The smugglers forced their passengers overboard so they could make a speedy departure after being spotted by Yemeni security forces, UNHCR spokeswoman Astrid van Genderen Stort said.

It was the latest case of smuggler brutality involving boats carrying people across the Gulf of Aden from Somalia. It brings the total number of dead and missing among people trying to reach Yemen so far this year to 262.

"We are horrified by this latest tragedy," said Erika Feller, the agency's assistant high commissioner for protection.

The victims are people "who are desperate to escape persecution, violence and poverty in the Horn of Africa," she said.

About 290 people survived the latest incident, which occurred as four smugglers' boats approached the coastline, UNHCR said.

Passengers who resisted the smugglers were stabbed or beaten with wooden and steel clubs, then thrown overboard where some were attacked by sharks, the agency said it learned from survivors.

"Several recovered bodies showed signs of severe mutilation," UNHCR said. "Survivors also reported that several Ethiopian women and at least one Somali were raped and abused by the smugglers during the voyage from Bosaso in Somalia's Puntland region. Survivors also alleged that some Yemeni security forces confiscated their money once they reached shore."

Since January 2006 at least 30,000 people have fled violence and hardship in Somalia and Ethiopia for Yemen, according to UNHCR. About 500 people have died and at least 300 are missing and believed dead.

Two more boats carrying 330 Somalis and Ethiopians arrived in Yemen on Saturday, but no casualties were reported, the agency said.