Smugglers forced more than 130 people overboard on a boat carrying migrants from Somalia to Yemen, the UN refugee agency said Friday, as a search was mounted for the missing passengers. About 100 of them were still missing in the Gulf of Aden, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees said. “UNHCR and its partners are searching for about 100 people reported missing in the Gulf of Aden after being forced overboard by smugglers off the coast of Yemen,” UNHCR spokesman Ron Redmond told journalists. According to survivors, all but 12 of the 150 people who left the Somali port of Marera were forced overboard about five kilometers off Yemen's coast, said Redmond. The 12 were placed in a smaller boat while the others had to swim to shore. “Survivors said they counted a total of 47 people reaching shore (including the 12 in the boat), and later saw Yemeni authorities burying five bodies,” said Redmond. The incident brought the total number of people reported missing in the region this year to 365, while at least 230 are known to have died. Some 32,000 people have arrived in Yemen this year after being smuggled across the Gulf from war-torn Somalia. Smugglers charge 70 to 200 dollars (50 and 135 euros) to bring each person on the perilous journey. The last tragedy was reported by the UNHCR barely two weeks ago in September when at least 52 Somali nationals died in similar circumstances. Meanwhile, pirates in the commercially strategic waters between Somalia and Yemen hijacked one ship and released another on Friday, a government official and a shipping line said. The Panama-flagged Wail, carrying cement, was the latest in a long list of ships that have been boarded by pirates in recent months. Several have been released on payment of a ransom and one luxury yacht was liberated by French commandos. “A Panama-flagged ship, Wail, was hijacked on Thursday night between Socotra Island and Bosasso,” said Ali Abdi Aware, state minister for northern Somalia's semi-autonomous Puntland region. He said the crew of 11 consisted of nine Syrians and two Somalis. Also on Friday pirates freed an Iranian bulk carrier and its 29 crew after seven weeks of negotiations, Iran's official IRNA news agency said, quoting the Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines (IRSL). Piracy is rife off Somalia, which has been mired in anarchy since warlords overthrew dictator Siad Barre in 1991.
