IOM spokesman says for 2nd straight year 'Eastern Route' remains busiest migration route.
Some 11,500 people on an average boarded vessels every month from the Horn of Africa to Yemen in 2019, making it the world's busiest maritime migration route, the UN migration body said Friday.
International Organization for Migration (IOM) spokesman Paul Dillon said at a news briefing in Geneva that data collected showed that more than 138,000 people crossed the Gulf of Aden to Yemen last year.
“This is the second year in a row that the so-called Eastern Route has reported more crossings than the Mediterranean. In 2018, roughly 160,000 people made the journey,” said Dillon.
More than 110,000 migrants and refugees crossed the Mediterranean to Europe in 2019.
Nearly all of those who arrived in Yemen in 2019 intended to continue on to Saudi Arabia, said the IOM.
“Often coming from the rural regions of Oromia, Amhara, and Tigray, approximately 92% of people making the journey were Ethiopian nationals,” said Dillon.
He quoted Mohammed Abdiker, IOM regional director for the East and Horn of Africa, as saying: “While tragedies along the Mediterranean routes are well reported, our staff bear witness daily to the abuse suffered by young people from the Horn of Africa at the hands of smugglers and traffickers exploiting their hopes for a better life.”
Migration on the 'Eastern Route' has been reduced by five years of conflict in Yemen, yet migrants appear undeterred by the Gulf’s strict immigration policies for undocumented migrants.
“To get to Yemen, they crammed about 280 of us into one boat,” a 32-year-old Ethiopian man told IOM in Aden, Yemen.
“There was no oxygen, and some people committed suicide by throwing themselves into the sea.”
Most taking the route are unaware of the security situation in Yemen where they face serious protection concerns, including active fighting or abuses such as kidnapping, torture for ransom, exploitation, and trafficking.
SOURCE: Anadolu Agency
