By NNN-KUNA,
Geneva : The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has said that the number of people arriving on the coast of Yemen after being smuggled across the treacherous Gulf of Aden from the Horn of Africa has more than doubled this year.
UNHCR spokesperson Jennifer Pagonis told reporters Tuesday that by April 20, more than 15,300 people had been reported arriving in Aden on 324 boats, and 361 people were reported killed or missing during the hazardous voyage.
During the same period in 2007, a total of 7,166 people had arrived in Yemen on 60 boats, and approximately the same number had perished.
Pagonis explained that the surge in arrivals early this year was largely due to the continuing conflict in Somalia and the use of new smuggling routes from Somalia to Yemen and across the Red Sea from Djibouti.
Many of the new arrivals also tell of crop losses due to drought, which forced them to leave home.