Scores of migrants were forced overboard by smugglers off the coast of Yemen — the second such incident in as many days. Up to 180 people were forced off a boat Thursday and at least five have drowned and 50 are still missing, according to the International Organization for Migration.

"We have the five bodies for sure ... but we believe that there are certainly more than 50 who are still in the sea," Laurent de Boeck, the IOM's chief of mission in Yemen, told The Associated Press.

It wasn't immediately clear where the refugees came from, but in a similar incident on Wednesday, 120 migrants from Ethiopia and Somalia were forced overboard in the same area by smugglers who feared arrest if they were caught with human cargo. Twenty-nine of them died, and 22 are still missing.

"They were in a boat with smugglers, who dropped them at sea before arriving at the shores. Some people have disappeared. But others were actually buried by their friends on the beaches," de Boeck told Al-Jazeera, adding that it's the first time the group had documented such cases in the region.

Yemen, although wracked by civil war, has become a destination for migrants from the Horn of Africa who are seeking jobs in wealthy Gulf countries, such as Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

"They are not aware at all that there is a war. Sometimes they don't even believe us when we explain it to them," de Boeck told the AP, explaining why refugees would come to Yemen. Just by making land they feel "they are halfway to wealthy."

The IOM estimates that about 55,000 migrants have left the Horn of Africa for Yemen so far this year. Most come from Somalia and Ethiopia.

"Some are coming for the third time. They didn't succeed, they went back home, but the parents didn't agree with the fact that they didn't succeed so they send them back. And they have no choice," de Boeck told the AP. "They are between 12 and 25 years old."

The Regional Mixed Migration Secretariat, a group of international agencies that monitors migration, says 111,500 refugees and migrants arrived in Yemen last year and 100,000 in 2015, contributing to a humanitarian crisis in that country.</s>More refugees and migrants have been "deliberately drowned" by human smugglers for the second time in 24 hours off the coast of Yemen, according to the United Nations migration agency.

The International Organization for Migration (IOM) said in a statement late on Thursday that its staff found six bodies on the beach - two male and four female - and 13 people are still missing.

It said 84 migrants left the beach before IOM staff arrived while it provided emergency medical assistance as well as food and water to 57 surviving migrants.

The UN migration agency said 160 Ethiopian migrants were violently forced into the Arabian Sea on Thursday.

"It is indeed a very dramatic situation," Laurent de Boeck, the agency's chief for Yemen, told Al Jazeera from Brussels on Thursday.

READ MORE: UN says up to 50 refugees down off Yemen

"They were in a boat with smugglers, who dropped them at sea before arriving at the shore. Some people have disappeared. But others were actually buried by their friends on the beaches."

De Boeck said the incident was reported by some of the survivors, whom he described as "exhausted and under shock".

"This situation is new," he said, adding that "it is the first time" that his agency documented people being forced out of the boats by smugglers before reaching the shores.

De Boeck said that the civil war in Yemen and the collapse of the state have allowed "criminal networks to act freely", endangering many refugees and migrants.

Desperate crossing

William Lacy Swing, the head of IOM, lamented the deaths in a video posted on Twitter, saying there was "something fundamentally wrong with this world if countless numbers of children can be deliberately and ruthlessly drowned".

He described the smuggling route from the Horn of Africa to Yemen as "a busy and extremely dangerous route" because of the conflict there.

The war between the Saudi-backed government and Iran-backed Houthi rebels has killed more than 10,000 people and wounded a further 44,500 since 2015.

"We condemn the acts of smugglers off the coast of #Yemen." A message from our @IOMchief Swing: pic.twitter.com/lziQOzVmC5 — IOM (@UNmigration) August 10, 2017

In the incident on Wednesday, the smuggler forced more than 120 people into the sea as they approached Yemen's coast, the IOM statement said. Its staffers found the shallow graves of 29 migrants on a beach in Shabwa during a routine patrol. At least 22 migrants remained missing.

The passengers' average age was 16, the agency said.

De Boeck told Al Jazeera on Thursday that smugglers from Djibouti, Ethiopia and Somalia work with their counterparts in Yemen to transport people across the Horn of Africa.

The narrow waters between the Horn of Africa and Yemen have been a popular migration route despite Yemen's ongoing conflict. Refugees and migrants try to make their way to the oil-rich Gulf countries.

But once in Yemen, the refugees and migrants face the brutality of war, forcing them back to Sudan, Egypt and Libya, where they cross the Mediterranean to reach Europe.

More than 111,500 refugees and migrants landed on Yemen's shores last year, up from around 100,000 the year before, according to the Regional Mixed Migration Secretariat, a grouping of international agencies that monitors migration in the area.

Since January this year, the IOM said that about 55,000 people had left Horn of Africa nations for Yemen. A third of them are estimated to be women.

Stephane Dujarric, spokesperson for the UN Secretary General, told reporters on Thursday that the international community must give priority to preventing and resolving situations "which both generate mass movement and expose those already on the move to significant danger".

"We must also increase legal pathways for regular migration and offer a credible alternative to these dangerous crossings for people in need of international protection," he added.

Al Jazeera's Rosiland Jordan, reporting from the UN in New York, said many of the refugees had been handcuffed by smugglers which - according to survivors - had been done to get more pepole into the boats and to make it impossible for them to escape and report on the smugglers if something went wrong.

Jordan said it was unlikely the smugglers could be arrested, detained, or tried given that Yemen is in a state of war.

"So there's a real sense of urgency [at the UN] in trying to prevent this from happening again, but with Yemen in a state of war, and its security forces really outmanned by these smuggling operations, this situation could get worse before it gets better," she said.</s>Scores of migrants were forced overboard by smugglers off the coast of Yemen — the second such incident in as many days. Up to 180 people were forced off a boat Thursday and at least five have drowned and 50 are still missing, according to the International Organization for Migration.

"We have the five bodies for sure ... but we believe that there are certainly more than 50 who are still in the sea," Laurent de Boeck, the IOM's chief of mission in Yemen, told The Associated Press.

It wasn't immediately clear where the refugees came from, but in a similar incident on Wednesday, 120 migrants from Ethiopia and Somalia were forced overboard in the same area by smugglers who feared arrest if they were caught with human cargo. Twenty-nine of them died, and 22 are still missing.

"They were in a boat with smugglers, who dropped them at sea before arriving at the shores. Some people have disappeared. But others were actually buried by their friends on the beaches," de Boeck told Al-Jazeera, adding that it's the first time the group had documented such cases in the region.

Yemen, although wracked by civil war, has become a destination for migrants from the Horn of Africa who are seeking jobs in wealthy Gulf countries, such as Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

"They are not aware at all that there is a war. Sometimes they don't even believe us when we explain it to them," de Boeck told the AP, explaining why refugees would come to Yemen. Just by making land they feel "they are halfway to wealthy."

The IOM estimates that about 55,000 migrants have left the Horn of Africa for Yemen so far this year. Most come from Somalia and Ethiopia.

"Some are coming for the third time. They didn't succeed, they went back home, but the parents didn't agree with the fact that they didn't succeed so they send them back. And they have no choice," de Boeck told the AP. "They are between 12 and 25 years old."

The Regional Mixed Migration Secretariat, a group of international agencies that monitors migration, says 111,500 refugees and migrants arrived in Yemen last year and 100,000 in 2015, contributing to a humanitarian crisis in that country.</s>As many as 50 Somali and Ethiopian migrants, many of them teenagers, are believed to have been " deliberately drowned " when a human smuggler in charge of a boat forced more than 120 people into the sea off the coast of Yemen, according to the U.N. agency on migration.

In a statement released early Thursday, the International Organization on Migration (IOM) said it had discovered the shallow graves of 29 people on a beach in Shabwa, a Yemeni Governorate along the Arabian Sea, during a routine patrol operation.

The organization said survivors of the tragedy, who had been hoping to transit through Yemen to reach other Gulf countries, had hastily buried the dead upon reaching the shore.

IOM medical personnel treated 27 survivors, who were both male and female, while a further 22 people that had been onboard are reportedly still missing. The average age of the passengers was 16, IOM said.

"The survivors told our colleagues on the beach that the smuggler pushed them to the sea, when he saw some ‘authority types’ near the coast," Laurent de Boeck, the IOM Yemen Chief of Mission said in the statement. They added that they believed the smuggler had returned to Somalia to pick up more migrants.

"This is shocking and inhumane," de Boeck said. "The suffering of migrants on this migration route is enormous."

Read more: A Group of Tunisian Fishermen Blocked a 'Racist' Anti-Migrant Boat From Docking

An estimated 55,000 people have left the Horn of Africa for Yemen since January 2017, according to the IOM, in the hopes of finding better economic opportunities in Gulf countries. About a third of those migrants are female, and more than half were under the age of 18 when they left their home countries, the IOM says.</s>Five migrants are dead and another 50 are reported missing after smugglers forced them from a boat off the coast of Yemen in the second such drowning in two days, the U.N. migration agency said Thursday.

The International Organization for Migration statement came less than a day after it said up to 50 migrants from Ethiopia and Somalia were "deliberately drowned" by a smuggler in a separate boat off Yemen.

Up to 180 migrants were forced from the boat in the latest incident Thursday morning, the IOM said.

"This is shocking and alarming," said Laurent de Boeck, the IOM's chief of mission in Yemen. "They were dropped at sea but closer to the beach this time." He said staffers at the scene had found five bodies.

The narrow waters between the Horn of Africa and Yemen have been a popular migration route despite Yemen's ongoing conflict. Migrants try to make their way to the oil-rich Gulf countries.

On Wednesday, a smuggler forced more than 120 migrants into the sea as they approached Yemen's coast, the IOM said. Its staffers found the shallow graves of 29 of the migrants on a beach in Shabwa during a routine patrol. The dead were buried by those who survived. At least 22 migrants remained missing.

The passengers' average age was around 16, the IOM said.

"The survivors told our colleagues on the beach that the smuggler pushed them to the sea when he saw some 'authority types' near the coast," de Boeck said. "They also told us that the smuggler has already returned to Somalia to continue his business and pick up more migrants to bring to Yemen on the same route."

De Boeck called the suffering of migrants on the route enormous, especially during the current windy season on the Indian Ocean. "Too many young people pay smugglers with the false hope of a better future," he said.

The IOM says about 55,000 migrants have left Horn of Africa nations for Yemen since January, with most from Somalia and Ethiopia. A third of them are estimated to be women.

Despite the fighting in Yemen, African migrants continue to arrive in the war-torn country where there is no central authority to prevent them from traveling onward. The migrants are vulnerable to abuse by armed trafficking rings, many of them believed to be connected to the armed groups involved in the war.

The conflict itself is a deadly risk. In March, Somalia's government blamed the Saudi-led coalition fighting in Yemen for an attack on a boat that killed at least 42 Somali refugees off Yemen's coast.

Some Somalis are desperate to avoid years of chaos at home with attacks by homegrown extremist group al-Shabab and deadly drought. Some Ethiopians have left home after months of deadly anti-government protests and a 10-month state of emergency.

More than 111,500 migrants landed on Yemen's shores last year, up from around 100,000 the year before, according to the Regional Mixed Migration Secretariat, a grouping of international agencies that monitors migration in the area.</s>Refugees and migrants hoping to reach oil-rich Gulf countries — many of them teenagers — are increasingly traversing a dangerous sea route to Yemen, despite the conflict raging there.

The flow of migrants crossing a small sea passage from the Horn of Africa to Yemen, which has continued unabated for years, reached a record of over 117,000 migrants and asylum seekers in 2016 — up from around 100,000 the year before.

Officials believe the figure for 2017 will be even higher.

“A lot of people who hear about the route for the first time are quite surprised,” Olivia Headon, a press officer at the International Organization for Migration (IOM), told CNN. “They can’t imagine why anyone would go into Yemen during the grip of conflict. But some in Somalia aren’t aware of just how bad it is in Yemen.”

After two-and-a-half years of grinding civil war, Yemen is in the throes of a vicious cholera outbreak and a near famine, coalescing into one of the worst humanitarian crises on the planet.

But economic and environmental factors in Somalia and Ethiopia, where most of the migrants come from, have left young people feeling there is no future for them at home.

Youth unemployment is extremely high in parts of Somalia and the country is also experiencing a severe drought that is fueling fears of famine. This spring, Somali President Mohamed Abdullahi Farmajo declared the drought a national disaster.

Ethiopians are also facing acute hunger, with the UN saying at least 8.5 million people in the country are in need of immediate food assistance.

Most of the migrants hope to eventually make their way through Yemen to find jobs in Gulf countries, like Saudi Arabia, Oman, and Dubai.

“You have smugglers who are selling an idea, a dream. We see it on other routes as well. Even if you are aware of the dangers of the route, as a migrant you buy into the idea, the dream of finding a job there,” Headon added.

In the last two days, the United Nations migration agency has recorded two separate instances of smugglers forcing migrants off of boats and into the sea, leaving them to drown.

Up to 50 refugees and migrants from Somalia and Ethiopia were “deliberately drowned” when they were thrown from a boat off the coast of Yemen, survivors told IOM. The average age of the passengers on board was around 16, according to the group.

“The survivors told our colleagues on the beach that the smuggler pushed them to the sea when he saw some ‘authority types’ near the coast,” Laurent de Boeck, the IOM’s chief of mission in Yemen, said. “They also told us that the smuggler has already returned to Somalia to continue his business and pick up more migrants to bring to Yemen on the same route.”

Twenty-nine of the migrants were found buried in graves on a beach in Shabwa by IOM staff on Wednesday.

“The bodies were buried in shallow graves by the survivors,” Headon said. “You can’t imagine the psychological effects that has on children and teens.”

Children as young as 12 have been seen traversing the migrant route, Headon added.

On Thursday, IOM reported that another smuggler forced some 160 people from a second boat, this time closer to shore.

IOM staff found the remains of at least six bodies on a beach in the same area, and 25 people were receiving urgent medical attention. Some 13 people were still missing, and 100 others had entered into Yemen.

IOM estimates that around 55,000 migrants have left the Horn of Africa to come to Yemen this year alone, with most from Somalia and Ethiopia. More than 30,000 of those were under 18. A third are estimated to be female.

While the route isn’t new, smugglers working in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden have taken advantage of the instability in Yemen. And without a centralized authority in Yemen, there is no one to stop them from traveling onward through the war-torn country.

But most get caught in the conflict before reaching the promises of jobs in the Gulf, Headon says.

UNHCR data shows that the number of migrants, refugees and asylum seekers arriving in Yemen has steadily climbed over the last 10 years — doubling from 2006, when 25,898 arrivals were recorded, to 2008, when 50,091 people reportedly arrived, and then again in 2015, when nearly 100,000 people landed on Yemen’s shores.

Part of the rise in migration to Yemen is down to cost, Headon explains.

The route is significantly more affordable than the West Africa route through Libya and onto Europe.

“The costs of paying a smuggler to go to Yemen can be as little as 100 dollars, which is far less than what we see up through Africa to Libya and on to Europe,” which is around $5,000, Headon says. “People pay this small amount of money, which is actually affordable for them, but on the journey the smugglers rape, torture, and abuse them. Many record this on Facebook, and FaceTime, to force families to pay more money as a sort of ransom.”

She says in some cases the cost can go up to an additional $1,000 — still far below the West African route.

Many of the migrants who arrive in Yemen after being sold on fake promises end up returning home.

Each week, IOM and its partners in the region help to evacuate people from Yemen to Djibouti and back to their home countries.

“The suffering of migrants on this migration route is enormous,” Laurent de Boeck, the IOM Yemen Chief of Mission, said in a statement. “Too many young people pay smugglers with the false hope of a better future.”</s>Scores of migrants were forced overboard by smugglers off the coast of Yemen — the second such incident in as many days. Up to 180 people were forced off a boat Thursday and at least five have drowned and 50 are still missing, according to the International Organization for Migration.

"We have the five bodies for sure ... but we believe that there are certainly more than 50 who are still in the sea," Laurent de Boeck, the IOM's chief of mission in Yemen, told The Associated Press.

It wasn't immediately clear where the refugees came from, but in a similar incident on Wednesday, 120 migrants from Ethiopia and Somalia were forced overboard in the same area by smugglers who feared arrest if they were caught with human cargo. Twenty-nine of them died, and 22 are still missing.

"They were in a boat with smugglers, who dropped them at sea before arriving at the shores. Some people have disappeared. But others were actually buried by their friends on the beaches," de Boeck told Al-Jazeera, adding that it's the first time the group had documented such cases in the region.

Yemen, although wracked by civil war, has become a destination for migrants from the Horn of Africa who are seeking jobs in wealthy Gulf countries, such as Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

"They are not aware at all that there is a war. Sometimes they don't even believe us when we explain it to them," de Boeck told the AP, explaining why refugees would come to Yemen. Just by making land they feel "they are halfway to wealthy."

The IOM estimates that about 55,000 migrants have left the Horn of Africa for Yemen so far this year. Most come from Somalia and Ethiopia.

"Some are coming for the third time. They didn't succeed, they went back home, but the parents didn't agree with the fact that they didn't succeed so they send them back. And they have no choice," de Boeck told the AP. "They are between 12 and 25 years old."

The Regional Mixed Migration Secretariat, a group of international agencies that monitors migration, says 111,500 refugees and migrants arrived in Yemen last year and 100,000 in 2015, contributing to a humanitarian crisis in that country.</s>Dubai: At least five migrants drowned and 50 went missing Thursday when smugglers forced 180 Africans off a boat bound for Yemen, a day after a similar incident left 50 dead, the International Organization for Migration said.

Twenty-five people were being treated for injuries on a Yemeni beach on the Red Sea, said the UN migration agency, which could not immediately confirm the nationalities of the casualties.

On Wednesday, people traffickers also forced more than 120 Somali and Ethiopian migrants into rough seas off Yemen to avoid arrest by local authorities, leaving at least 50 dead and 22 missing, the IOM said.

IOM teams, working with International Committee of the Red Cross representation, found the bodies of 29 migrants in shallow graves along the coast of Shabwa province in southern Yemen. They had been buried by survivors.

The average age of the migrants was 16.

Long the poorest country in the Arab world, Yemen has been called the "largest humanitarian crisis in the world" by the United Nations.

A brutal war since March 2015 between its Saudi-backed government and Shiite Huthi rebels allied with Iran, a cholera outbreak and the looming threat of famine have left nearly 10,300 people dead and displaced millions.

Yet Yemen continues to draw migrants desperate for work in the stable and prosperous Gulf, accessible by land through its border with Saudi Arabia.

IOM estimates some 55,000 migrants have left the Horn of Africa headed for Yemen since the start of 2017.

"This journey is especially hazardous during the current windy season in the Indian Ocean. Smugglers are active in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, offering fake promises to vulnerable migrants," IOM said.</s>Scores of migrants were forced overboard by smugglers off the coast of Yemen — the second such incident in as many days. Up to 180 people were forced off a boat Thursday and at least five have drowned and 50 are still missing, according to the International Organization for Migration.

"We have the five bodies for sure ... but we believe that there are certainly more than 50 who are still in the sea," Laurent de Boeck, the IOM's chief of mission in Yemen, told The Associated Press.

It wasn't immediately clear where the refugees came from, but in a similar incident on Wednesday, 120 migrants from Ethiopia and Somalia were forced overboard in the same area by smugglers who feared arrest if they were caught with human cargo. Twenty-nine of them died, and 22 are still missing.

"They were in a boat with smugglers, who dropped them at sea before arriving at the shores. Some people have disappeared. But others were actually buried by their friends on the beaches," de Boeck told Al-Jazeera, adding that it's the first time the group had documented such cases in the region.

Yemen, although wracked by civil war, has become a destination for migrants from the Horn of Africa who are seeking jobs in wealthy Gulf countries, such as Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

"They are not aware at all that there is a war. Sometimes they don't even believe us when we explain it to them," de Boeck told the AP, explaining why refugees would come to Yemen. Just by making land they feel "they are halfway to wealthy."

The IOM estimates that about 55,000 migrants have left the Horn of Africa for Yemen so far this year. Most come from Somalia and Ethiopia.

"Some are coming for the third time. They didn't succeed, they went back home, but the parents didn't agree with the fact that they didn't succeed so they send them back. And they have no choice," de Boeck told the AP. "They are between 12 and 25 years old."

The Regional Mixed Migration Secretariat, a group of international agencies that monitors migration, says 111,500 refugees and migrants arrived in Yemen last year and 100,000 in 2015, contributing to a humanitarian crisis in that country.</s>Smugglers threw as many as 280 migrants into the waters off the coast of Yemen in two separate incidents this week. The International Organization for Migration says dozens are dead. The IOM says the migrants from Ethiopia and Somalia were deliberately drowned. Joining us now is Joel Millman of the IOM. Welcome to the program.

JOEL MILLMAN: Thanks very much.

SHAPIRO: What else can you tell us about how these two incidents unfolded?

MILLMAN: Well, we're still gathering information. We understand that this morning, four more remains were found of other migrants. Our count at the moment is 39 confirmed dead and 31 still missing. So we're at least at 70 at the moment. We know that this is a very common route. In fact you could even say it's one of the oldest routes on Earth. People have been coming out of Africa along this route into the Middle East since before time was recorded. It's picked up quite a lot because of drought conditions in the Horn of Africa, general poverty and some violence in some countries.

But smugglers have also been marketing the Yemen civil war as a good opportunity to cross undetected. We know that's not true, but they market this idea pretty heavily. In fact they do the same thing in Libya. And that's caused - as we understand it, close to 60,000 people have tried to get across the straits since the 1st of this year. And casualties on that route are in the hundreds.

Whoever was operating the smuggling vessel - we hesitate to call them the smuggler because it's often someone that's recruited to get a cut rate and pay less because they help out with the transit. They were frightened by something they saw - we believe it might have been a patrol - and panicked and ordered the passengers into the water.

SHAPIRO: Can you tell me about what you've heard from one of the survivors?

MILLMAN: Well, I didn't speak to them myself. But I understand that we heard that there were a preponderance of Ethiopian and Somalis, which is not unusual - this is a very typical route for the Ethiopians - and that they were pretty young. I mean we have - almost all of them were teenagers. Beyond that, I can't really share very much. I know that there are a number who after a day decided to continue their trek. And there's others that we were able to persuade to turn back.

SHAPIRO: It sounds as though this might be an extraordinary circumstance, but it's not at all unheard of.

MILLMAN: Oh, it's far from unheard of. I mean you can go back and see incidents like this all the time. I mean just in the surf of Libya this year, 348 bodies have been recovered. These are people in much similar situations. We know that, you know, that this location, the Bab el-Mandeb, has a reputation. It's known as the Gateway of Grief in the local dialect. You know, treacherous currents and storm conditions and all kinds of things contribute. And we run routinely into the hundreds of deaths every year that were recorded in our Missing Migrants Project just from this stretch of the Red Sea.

SHAPIRO: And it sounds like there's no real prospect of accountability for the people responsible for this.

MILLMAN: Well, especially not now, not in the middle of a war. You know, the Yemen and - when you say the Yemen's authorities, you're talking about at least two groups. And, you know, the contested territory and violence is sort of generalized across the country, not to mention cholera and terrible scourges of their own population. I can't imagine great resources are going to be devoted to prosecuting these smugglers or even identifying them, for that matter.

SHAPIRO: That's Joel Millman of the International Organization for Migration. Thank you for joining us.

MILLMAN: Thanks for having me.
The United Nations International Organization for Migration reports, over the last two days in two incidents, smugglers have thrown 280 migrants from Ethiopia and other Horn of Africa countries into the sea off the coast of Yemen. More than 50 refugees have drowned with over 30 people still missing.