186 people missing and 2 confirmed dead in migrant boat capsizing off Yemen and Djibouti, says UN

The U.N.’s migration agency reported that at least two individuals have perished, and a staggering 186 people are unaccounted for after four boats transporting migrants from Africa overturned in waters near Yemen and Djibouti overnight.

Tamim Eleian, a spokesperson for the International Organization for Migration (IOM), disclosed that two vessels capsized off the coast of Yemen on Thursday evening. While two crew members were successfully rescued, 181 migrants and five Yemeni crew members are still missing, as confirmed to The Associated Press.

Immigrants are taken by smugglers on overcrowded boats across the Red Sea. (Photo by Tahsin Ceylan/Anadolu via Getty Images)

Yemen serves as a crucial passage for migrants hailing from East Africa and the Horn of Africa who are attempting to reach the Gulf nations in search of employment opportunities. Annually, hundreds of thousands of individuals embark on this perilous journey. To reach Yemen, migrants are often transported by traffickers on hazardous and overcrowded vessels across the hazardous Red Sea or Gulf of Aden.

The numbers making it to Yemen reached 97,200 in 2023 — triple the number in 2021. Last year, the number dropped to just under 61,000, probably because of greater patrolling of the waters, according to an IOM report this month.

Over the past decade, at least 2,082 migrants have disappeared along the route, including 693 known to have drowned, according to the IOM. Some 380,000 migrants are currently in Yemen.