Dozens of people 'drowned deliberately' off Yemen, says UN

[TomSea]

Dozens of people 'drowned deliberately' off Yemen, says UN
International Organisation for Migration says smuggler forced 120 young refugees into sea
Wednesday 9 August 2017 20:01 UTC   Last update: Thursday 10 August 2017 8:10 UTC

Up to 50 teenage Somali and Ethiopian migrants were "deliberately drowned" early on Wednesday by a smuggler who forced 120 passengers into the sea off Yemen's coast, the UN-partnered International Organisation for Migration (IOM) said.

    They were all quite young, the average age was around 16

    - IOM spokeswoman Olivia Headon

"The survivors told our colleagues on the beach that the smuggler pushed them to the sea when he saw some 'authority types' near the coast," Laurent de Boeck, the IOM Yemen mission chief, said in a statement.

"They also told us that the smuggler has already returned to Somalia to continue his business and pick up more migrants to bring to Yemen on the same route," he said.

Continued: http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/50-migrant-teens-deliberately-drowned-yemen-un-says-361137111