Tusinder af afrikanere druknet på vej mod, hvad de troede var en bedre fremtid
JOHANNESBURG, 5 December 2011 (IRIN): Two years ago, Abdiselam Sheik Omar left his home town of Jijiga in Ethiopia’s eastern Somali region and embarked on a hazardous journey.
A journey he hoped would take him across the Gulf of Aden to Yemen and eventually to Saudi Arabia.
– It is easy to find work there. The problem is crossing the sea, he told IRIN.
Omar was well aware of the risks and hardships, having made the journey twice before.
He knew that during the three- to five-day crossing from Puntland in northern Somalia there would be little to eat or drink, and his smugglers would not hesitate to beat uncooperative passengers or even throw them off the boat.
When the rickety (vaklevorne), overloaded boat he was on started sinking, one of the migrants drowned before the remaining 34 were rescued by the Yemeni Coast Guard. The passengers and their smugglers were arrested and jailed on reaching Yemen, but Omar was glad to be alive.
After 20 days he was released and made it as far as the border with Saudi Arabia before being arrested again. This time he was deported back to Ethiopia. – I will not try it again, even though I am jobless, he said.
Thousands perish
Every year, thousands of migrants risk hazardous sea crossings in a desperate bid to escape poverty, persecution or conflict.
If they run into trouble, as many do, their only hope of being rescued is a long-standing maritime code of conduct backed by numerous international protocols that compel (forpligter) passing ships to render assistance to any vessel in distress.
In the last year alone, cruise ships have picked up Cuban migrants off the coast of Florida, the Indonesian navy has rescued Afghan nationals trying to reach Australia, and Spanish authorities have assisted African refugees and migrants drifting in the Mediterranean.
Many other sinking or capsized (kæntrede) vessels were either missed or ignored, and countless migrants have lost their lives at sea.
The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) estimates that between February and October this year, 2.000 mostly African migrants fleeing the crisis in Libya drowned while trying to cross the Mediterranean.
Since the beginning of 2011, a further 131 Somali and Ethiopian refugees and migrants have perished in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden trying to reach Yemen.
Disincentives
Læs videre på http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?reportid=94383
