The bodies of 29 refugees have washed up on Yemen's shores, as increasing numbers of people flee the violence in Somalia, the Doctors Without Borders humanitarian group said Wednesday, AP reported. The bodies washed ashore near Wadi al-Barakin over the course of Tuesday after smugglers forced them to swim to shore while still out to sea, the group said, quoting survivors. «The survivors explained that the smugglers treated the passengers brutally during the trip. They reported that up to 10 people died during the journey _ several people were suffocated and three people, two of whom were children, had been thrown overboard by the smugglers,» said the group, known by their French acronym, MSF. Yemeni authorities have reported a spike in the number of refugees reaching their shores, with 882 Somalis and 12 Ethiopians making the trip in just the last week _ double the usual numbers. The U.N.'s refugee agency warned Tuesday, as well, of a sharp increase in refugees fleeing across the dangerous Red Sea straits to escape the violence in Somalia in August. According to UNHCR spokesman Ron Redmond, 59 boats brought more than 1,700 people in the course of August. «That's triple the number of arrivals for August 2007, when 633 people landed in 10 boats,» he said, in remarks on the agency's Web site. «Smuggling normally subsides between May and September because of stormy weather.» According to the U.N., 24,000 people have attempted the crossing this year. There have been 177 confirmed fatalities and 225 people have gone missing. In 2007 there were 9,153 arrivals.
