Migrants Archives - Kaab TV

Ethiopia Mourns Deaths of Over 60 Migrants in Yemeni Maritime Tragedy

Mohamed Jamal — Tue, 05 Aug 2025 09:12:55 +0000

NAIROBI (Kaab TV) – Ethiopia is mourning the deaths of more than 60 of its citizens who died in a maritime tragedy off the coast of Yemen, the country’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed on Monday.

The Ministry extended condolences to the families of the victims and urged Ethiopian citizens to avoid irregular migration routes.

It called on those seeking employment abroad to do so through legal and authorized channels.

Highlighting its ongoing efforts to create safer labor migration opportunities, the government said thousands of Ethiopians have already benefited from official programs.

It also warned against the dangers posed by human trafficking and smuggling networks, emphasizing the need for public awareness and strict adherence to regulated migration processes.

IOM statement

In a statement, the Ministry expressed deep sorrow over the incident and said it is working with international and regional partners to uncover the full details.

“The International Organization for Migration (IOM) is profoundly saddened by the tragic loss of life after a vessel carrying 200 migrants capsized off the coast of Shuqrah, in Yemen’s Abyan Governorate on 3 August,” IOM said in a statement.

At least 56 people are reported dead, 14 of them female, with many of the victims believed to be Ethiopian nationals, IOM added.

The total number of those missing stands at 132.

So far 12 survivors, all male, have been found.

IOM reported that the victims were part of a group of migrants whose vessel capsized while attempting to cross the Gulf of Aden, near Yemen’s Abyan Governorate.

According to the IOM, all the victims were Ethiopian nationals.

Dozens of bodies have been recovered along the Yemeni coast, while search operations continue for those still missing.

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At least 55 people drowned after a boat sank off the coast of Libya

admin — Thu, 27 Apr 2023 15:07:03 +0000

Rome (Kaab TV) – At least 55 people drowned after a boat sank off the coast of Libya, according to the U.N. migration agency.

It is the latest in a series of deadly accidents in just a few days involving migrants trying to cross the Mediterranean to Europe.

The boat left Garabouli, a town east of Tripoli, Libya’s capital, yesterday morning. Only five survivors were brought to shore by the Libyan coast guard.

Human rights organizations have for years protested the lack of preventive search and rescue patrols by countries around the Mediterranean.

After the dictator Muammar el-Qaddafi was toppled and killed in 2011, Libya descended into civil war, and its territory remains divided among warring factions.

It has become a major transit point to Europe for tens of thousands of African migrants. With few pathways for legal migration available, many pay smugglers to help them make the dangerous sea crossing.

Toll: In total, 661 people have died in the central Mediterranean this year, according to Flavio di Giacomo, a spokesman for the U.N. migration agency.

The number of deaths at sea includes people who went “missing” but after some hours are considered dead.

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Tunisia rounds up migrants at sea in unprecedented numbers

admin — Thu, 27 Apr 2023 06:43:31 +0000

OFF THE COAST OF SFAX, Tunisia (AP) — A young man wearing a baseball cap emblazoned with “Dior,” women clutching babies wrapped in blankets, children bundled in winter coats. All gingerly stepped from rickety boats into the sturdy craft of the Tunisian Maritime National Guard — and away from their dreams of life in Europe.

Cold, wet and heartbroken, they are among hundreds caught daily in overnight sweeps for migrant boats on the Mediterranean Sea.

“Sit down! Sit down! Sit down!” The shouted order confirmed the group was no longer in charge of their destiny. A woman sobbed.

On an overnight expedition with the National Guard last week, The Associated Press witnessed migrants pleading to continue their journeys to Italy in unseaworthy vessels, some taking on water. Over 14 hours, 372 people were plucked from the fragile boats.

Migrants, mainly from sub-Saharan Africa, are undertaking the perilous journey in unprecedented numbers. In the first three months of this year, 13,000 migrants were forced from their boats off the eastern Tunisian port city of Sfax, the main launching point. Between 2021 and 2022, the number of migrants heading to Europe, mostly to Italy but also to Malta, nearly doubled.

In a single day in March, a record 2,900 migrants were stopped in the Sfax region, which also includes the coastal city of Mahdia and the Kerkennah Islands, off the Sfax coast, said National Guard Brig. Gen. Sabeur Younes.

Migration to Europe has been on an upward climb, peaking in 2022 to 189,620, according to the International Organization for Migration. That’s the most since 2016, when close to 400,000 left their homelands, and one year after more than 1 million people, mostly Syrians fleeing war, sought refuge in 2015.

For many sub-Saharan Africans — who don’t need a visa to travel to Tunisia — the North African country serves as a stepping stone to Europe, while others come from Libya, which shares a border with Tunisia.

Each night, National Guard vessels comb the waters. Pulling up the dead is the grimmest part of the job. The Tunisian Forum for Economic and Social Rights said that 580 migrants died or disappeared at sea in 2022.

This week, Sfax officials were rushing to bury some 90 bodies washed up on beaches in the Sfax region in recent days, the official TAP news agency reported Tuesday. The morgue at the main hospital is full, making burials critical. No deaths or disappearances were reported the night the AP was present.

The groups of people plucked from the water during numerous sorties by small crafts are collected on a waiting National Guard mother ship and returned to Sfax.

Considered victims, not lawbreakers, those stopped en route are set free at the port, many to try again.

As of Monday, 36,610 migrants — including 2,882 Tunisians — had reached Italy since the start of the year. That is about four times the number who arrived in each of the two previous years, the Italian Interior Ministry said. Many head to Lampedusa, an island south of Sicily, some 180 kilometers (110 miles) from Sfax, a voyage that requires large measures of desperation and bravado.

“We are ready to drown and die to improve our situation,” said a Syrian who identified himself only as Mohamed, fearful like many migrants caught at sea of revealing his full name. “You know the situation in Syria, war and instability,” he said, adding that he had lost four family members in the war.

Italy is trying to stem the flow from Tunisia, and stabilize the North African country in the midst of its deepest economic crisis in a generation, with growing social and political tensions. This month Rome declared a state of emergency to help cope with the influx, then sweetened pressure on Tunisia, vowing a host of investments plus help in tough negotiations for an International Monetary Fund loan.

But those incentives won’t stop the recent, furious drive by people from sub-Saharan Africa and a booming business in cheaper metal boats that have fed the surge in migration from Tunisia.

Sub-Saharan Africans, some living illegally in Tunisia for years and working at low wages, began trying to make a quick exit after Tunisia’s increasingly authoritarian President Kais Saied demanded urgent measures in February to crack down on Black Africans, claiming they are part of a plot to erase his country’s identity. Some countries airlifted their citizens back home.

Many sub-Saharan Africans looked toward Europe as a getaway.

“If a Black man does something bad in Tunisia, then Tunisians see us all as bad and chase us away,” said a man from Ivory Coast who refused to give his name over concerns about the tense situation for Black Africans in Tunisia. “It’s not logical. We are all humans.”

Younes, the National Guard chief, suggested that the furor over sub-Saharan Africans contributed to increased attempted crossings. “After what happened, voila. They no longer have the means to stay here,” he said. “They’ll try everything to get to the other side.”

But another factor has enticed people to risk their lives for Europe.

Flimsy, hand-made metal boats — cheaper but less stable than wooden vessels — began appearing on the seas last year and quickly became a flourishing business. The boats are made clandestinely in the Sfax region.

Arrests are made, “but unfortunately there are always other artisans to build them,” Younes said.

Even foreigners are being recruited, like Egyptians to do the welding, he said. But only a fine awaits boat builders who are caught because officials have so far failed to establish a link with smugglers.

For the National Guard official, a critical link with Italy is missing.

“We need direct contact with the Italians for boats that risk sinking” but have exited Tunisia’s zone of rescue, Younes said, rejecting suggestions Tunisia is not doing enough to stopped the influx of migrants.

For the migrants, Tunisia is already doing too much — dashing their dreams.

“We want to leave Tunisia! Let us die at sea. It’s our choice,” cried out some forced off the boats. “It’s our destiny.”

Among those removed was an infant bundled in a camouflage fleece suit, her head covered by a hat with kitty ears, seemingly dressed for a special event that was abruptly canceled by the National Guard.

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IOM says over 1 million migrants in need of assistance in the Horn of Africa

admin — Wed, 15 Feb 2023 12:09:20 +0000

Nairobi (Kaab TV) – The International Organization for Migration (IOM) and 47 other partners are appealing today (14/02) for USD 84 million to provide humanitarian and development assistance to over 1 million migrants and the communities hosting them, many of whom are vulnerable, and in need of urgent help along the Eastern Route from the Horn of Africa to Yemen.

The appeal, made through the multi-agency Regional Migrant Response Plan for the Horn of Africa and Yemen framework, will address the dire humanitarian needs as well as protection risks and vulnerabilities that migrants in the region face and scale up the delivery of lifesaving and resilience-building initiatives as well as pursue the implementation of long-term sustainable solutions for migrants and host communities.

The Eastern Route is one of the busiest, most complex, and dangerous migratory routes in the world. In 2022 overall, the number of migrants who entered Djibouti almost doubled compared to the previous year. In the same year, 89 migrant deaths or disappearances were recorded along the route due to hazardous transportation, illness, harsh environmental conditions, drowning at sea, and violence. Many more deaths and disappearances go unreported.

Every year, thousands of migrants leave their countries in the Horn of Africa and move along the Eastern route towards Gulf countries. In their migration, most migrants make the dangerous crossing of the Red Sea through Bossaso in Somalia, and Djibouti’s coastal town of Obock to Yemen and further by land to Gulf countries.

“The Eastern Route is an underserved crisis easily forgotten amidst other global crises, and we must accord the migrants the support and dignity they deserve,” said IOM Director General, António Vitorino. “The Regional Migrant Response Plan was conceptualized to address the vast and complex challenges on this route and to do so in a coherent and coordinated manner.”

Mobility in the Horn of Africa, through Yemen and to the Gulf States, continues to be triggered by interconnected crises, including persistent insecurity and conflict, harsh climatic conditions, and public health emergencies, in addition to socioeconomic drivers and more traditional seasonal factors.

Funding through this appeal will address the most immediate and critical humanitarian and protection needs of migrants in vulnerable situations; support their voluntary return to their home countries in a safe and dignified manner and ensure that they reintegrate back into their communities successfully.

“The plan provides a flexible mechanism for all stakeholders to respond to evolving migration trends, and broader humanitarian and development challenges affecting migrants, host communities and the respective governments,” added the IOM Director General.

Funding through this appeal will further help stakeholders’ efforts towards addressing the drivers of irregular migration; strengthen the capacity of governments in the region on migration management; ensure coordination of efforts, and enhance inter-state and inter-regional collaboration to address the national and regional dimensions of the migration linking the Horn of Africa and Yemen.

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