Rescuers race to find over 100 migrants missing off Djibouti coast

Rescuers are searching for more than 100 migrants off the coast of Djibouti after smugglers forced them to jump into the sea, the UN migration agency said on Wednesday.

At least 45 bodies have been recovered from Tuesday’s incident, a death toll that makes 2024 the deadliest year on record for sea crossings on the migration route between East Africa and Yemen, the International Organisation for Migration said.

Another 154 people have been rescued from the two boats, which left Yemen for Djibouti with a total of 310 passengers, IOM said in a statement.

“Ongoing search and rescue operations are underway by the Djiboutian Coast Guard to locate the missing migrants,” it said.

Every year, hundreds of thousands of people leave the Horn of Africa in pursuit of better economic prospects in Gulf nations via the so-called Eastern Route, described by the IOM as one of the world’s busiest and riskiest migration corridors.

Survivors told IOM that they were forced off the two vessels by the boat operators in the open sea off the coast of Obock, a port town in Djibouti.

The survivors included a four-month-old infant whose mother drowned, the agency said.

Many migrants on the Eastern Route end up trapped in violence-wracked Yemen and attempt to return to Djibouti.