Officials say that at least 45 individuals are dead with many others missing after two migrant boats turned over near the coast of Djibouti. The two vessels originally departed from Yemen with 310 migrants on board before capsizing in the Red Sea. The boat sank nearly 200 meters away from a beach in Djibouti’s Khor Angar region. The International Organization for Migration (IOM) is supporting state emergency services in search and rescue operations and has claimed that 32 survivors have been rescued. The coast guard of Djibouti claimed that a joint rescue effort has been underway since Monday with 115 people saved, but with dozens still missing.
The sinking of these two vessels is the latest disaster to hit the Red Sea boat route, a route that has been described as one of the busiest and most dangerous in the world. Migrants from Africa use the route to sail across the Red Sea to oil-rich states near the Persian Gulf. In April, 38 people died after their boat sank off the coast of Djibouti, taking a similar route across the Red Sea. In June, 49 died when a boat carrying mostly people from Ethiopia and Somalia sank after setting off from Somalia.
This disastrous route taken by thousands of migrants is called the “Eastern Route”, connecting gulf-states such as Yemen to the Horn of Africa. Human smugglers pack hordes of migrants into small and overcrowded vessels as they head to Yemen and its neighboring countries in search of work. “Hundreds have lost their lives this year,” said Franz Celestin, the IOM’s regional director for East and Southern Africa. Nearly 400,000 people took the route in 2023 with over 700 dying or going missing on the path. This extreme number adds to the 1,000 who have died crossing the route since 2014, a number given by the IOM.
Not only does the Eastern Route pose the threat of capsizing, those crossing the Red Sea face a multitude of other threats such as being exposed to health risks, violence and exploitation by human traffickers, and political violence. Furthermore, these dangers must be endured twice by many who fail their attempts and have to return home primarily to Ethiopia and Somalia.
The reason for this mass migration from the Horn of Africa is mostly due to the extreme drought that is ravaging the region with millions facing acute hunger. Ethiopians and Somalians are the most common people to utilize the route to escape natural disasters and conflicts within their countries. Albeit, even if migrants survive the perilous journey, they face hostility on land with Human Rights Watch saying that Saudi Arabian border guards had regularly opened fire on Africans trying to cross into Saudi Arabia from Yemen.
The Djibouti Coast Guard is continuing their search for the missing migrants as confirmed by a Facebook post late Tuesday, with 75 still missing the Coast Guard says search operations were “relentlessly” underway. With hundreds dying every year, it’s clear to see that robust measures are needed to protect the lives of migrants and to prevent and future disastrous incidents such as the recent catastrophes on the Eastern Route.
Written by Artin Safaie
