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Serenasailor
Veteran Poster
Username: Serenasailor
Post Number: 1459
Registered: 01-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, March 26, 2007 - 08:17 pm: | 
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SAN`A, Yemen - Smugglers taking illegal migrants from Somalia to Yemen forced hundreds of Africans overboard in stormy seas in an effort to make a fast getaway from security forces, officials said Monday. Thirty-one bodies have been found and nearly 90 people remained missing.
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Passengers who resisted the smugglers were stabbed or beaten with wooden and steel clubs, then thrown into the water where some were attacked by sharks, the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees said, citing survivors.
"Several recovered bodies showed signs of severe mutilation," UNHCR said. "Survivors also reported that several Ethiopian women and at least one Somali were raped and abused by the smugglers during the voyage from Bosaso in Somalia's Puntland region. Survivors also alleged that some Yemeni security forces confiscated their money once they reached shore."
Yemeni officials said several boats were involved in Thursday's incident. The dead and missing came from a single wooden boat that was carrying around 120 people, said an official from the local government in coastal Shabwa province.
Eight bodies were found Thursday, and another 23 were taken out of water over the past couple of days, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the press.
Another 450 people forced out of other boats at the same time have been rescued, he said. The UNHCR put the number of dead at 29, with 71 missing.
It was the latest case of smuggler brutality involving boats carrying people across the Gulf of Aden from Somalia and the Horn of Africa. It brings the total number of dead and missing among people trying to reach Yemen so far this year to 264.
"We are horrified by this latest tragedy," said Erika Feller, the UNHCR's assistant high commissioner for protection.
The victims are people "who are desperate to escape persecution, violence and poverty in the Horn of Africa," she said.
A similar incident occurred on Saturday, when smugglers forced 140 people into the water elsewhere along the coast. All the migrants were believed to have been rescued, Yemeni officials said. Two other boats carrying 330 Somalis and Ethiopians arrived in Yemen on Saturday, but no casualties were reported, the UNHCR said.
Since January 2006 at least 30,000 people have fled violence and hardship in Somalia and Ethiopia for Yemen, according to UNHCR. About 500 people have died and at least 300 are missing and believed dead.
Out of 88,000 registered refugees in Yemen, about 84,000 are Somali, UNHCR said.
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Mzuri
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Mzuri
Post Number: 4225
Registered: 01-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, March 26, 2007 - 10:58 pm: |
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This is beyond sad. I wish the world wasn't so messed up.
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Abm
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Abm
Post Number: 9047
Registered: 04-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, March 27, 2007 - 07:21 am: |
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If Somalians and Ethopians actually WANT to flee "violence and hardship" in their native countries, why must they be SMUGGED to Yemen?
Who are the "security forces" that seek to preclude their emigrating from Somalia and Ethopians?
And aren't the "security forces" and/or those to whom they report the TRUE cause of the problem here? |
Chrishayden
AALBC .com Platinum Poster
Username: Chrishayden
Post Number: 3988
Registered: 03-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, March 27, 2007 - 03:16 pm: |
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If Somalians and Ethopians actually WANT to flee "violence and hardship" in their native countries, why must they be SMUGGED to Yemen?
(The Yemenis (and nobody else) wants them)
Who are the "security forces" that seek to preclude their emigrating from Somalia and Ethopians
(The Yemenis)
And aren't the "security forces" and/or those to whom they report the TRUE cause of the problem here?
(They ain't doing anything every other border patrol, including ours, is doing--trying to keep people that they don't want out.
Anybody with money or talent can walk through the front door anywhere. These are people nobody wants.
The true problem is the foul conditions in their home countries. Lots of luck fixing them--
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Abm
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Abm
Post Number: 9067
Registered: 04-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, March 27, 2007 - 04:39 pm: |
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Chris,
To be honest, I've so given up on those foks working their problem out at home, I hardly consider it part of the calculus of solving the problem.
I agree, though, that that those are the root problems. And I concur with your sentiments about fixing them. |
Chrishayden
AALBC .com Platinum Poster
Username: Chrishayden
Post Number: 3993
Registered: 03-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, March 27, 2007 - 05:16 pm: |
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To be honest, I've so given up on those foks working their problem out at home, I hardly consider it part of the calculus of solving the problem
(a few hundred years ago anybody looking at Europe--depopulated by the Bubonic plague, politically divided, ignorant, starving and illiterate would have said the same thing.
You need to broaden your vision to more than what you see now--or what you are told you see.
There are places in the U.S. where people would get out if they had some place that would take them--but nobody would. |
Abm
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Abm
Post Number: 9073
Registered: 04-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, March 27, 2007 - 05:23 pm: |
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Chris,
Then what do we do about Somalia and Ethiopia, bruh? Send in UN Peacekeepers?
Oh, dayam, I forgot: We've tried THAT sh*t before and saw where it got us. |
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