Survivor Tells of Mediterranean Sea Disaster That May Have Killed 500 Migrants - The New York Times

Survivor Tells of Mediterranean Sea Disaster That May Have Killed 500 Migrants - The New York Times: "Two migrants from Ethiopia and Somalia recalled a shipwreck in the Mediterranean last week that they survived, though hundreds of others from the boat may have died. By REUTERS on Publish Date April 21, 2016. Photo by Nikitas Kotsiaris/European Pressphoto Agency. Watch in Times Video »
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Muaz Mahmud’s wife and 2-month-old son barely had time to scream as the cold waters of the Mediterranean surged over their heads.

Minutes earlier, they had been forced by smugglers to abandon the boat they had chartered in Libya last week for a larger boat already packed with 300 migrants heading toward Italy.

As the bigger boat took on more passengers, it began to list, Mr. Mahmud said Thursday. When it capsized, hundreds of panicked people — many of whom could not swim — were thrown into the sea.

Mr. Mahmud and another survivor of last week’s shipwreck recounted grim details of the sinking, in which 500 passengers may have died, making it the deadliest episode for asylum seekers trying to reach Europe since more than 800 drowned last April in a boat trying to reach Italy.

At a news conference in Athens, the men described how smugglers had promised to help them flee poverty and conflict in Africa for the safety of Europe, only to install them in floating death traps and abandon them when the journey became too dangerous.

The authorities in the region have not yet verified the disaster, and no national coast guards have located the sunken boat. But the latest tragedy, if confirmed, would bring the number of migrants who have died on the Mediterranean between North Africa and Europe this year to nearly 800, the International Organization for Migration said."



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Breaking News! 400 Migrants Drowned. Times Are Desperate. Is the Rapture...

የኖርዌይ መንግሥት 800 ኢትዮጵያውያን እና 60 ሕፃናትን ወደ ኢትዮጵያ ሊመልስ ነው

ዋሽንግተን ዲሲ —
ያቀረቡት የጥገኝነት ጥያቄ ተቀባይነት ያላገኘላቸው 800 ኢትዮጵያውያን እና 60 ሕፃናትን የኖርዌይ መንግሥት በግዳጅ ወደ ኢትዮጵያ እመልሳለሁ ማለቱ ከፍተኛ ስጋት ውስጥ እንደከተታቸው ተናገሩ።

የኖርዌይ ከለላ ጠያቂዎች ድርጅት ከፍተኛ አማካሪና የሕግ ባለሞያ በፖለቲካ ውስጥ ተሳትፎ ያላቸው ስደተኞች ስጋታቸው ተገቢ ነው ይላሉ።

ጽዮን ግርማ ስደተኞችንና የሕግ ባለሞያውን አነጋግራ ተከታዩን ዘገባ አጠናቅራለች።

የኖርዌይ መንግሥት 800 ኢትዮጵያውያን እና 60 ሕፃናትን ወደ ኢትዮጵያ ሊመልስ ነው

 

Sweden: Stowaway ethiopian Found in Cargo Hold of Ethiopian Airliner - The New York Times

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESSMARCH 7, 2016, 2:52 P.M. E.S.T.

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STOCKHOLM — Swedish police say a stowaway has been found alive in the cargo hold of a passenger jet from Ethiopia.

The man was found in a freight container after the Ethiopian Airlines plane landed Monday at Stockholm's Arlanda Airport.

Stockholm police said the man was "exhausted but alive" and applied for asylum in Sweden when he was discovered.

They said they passed his asylum request to immigration officials while they launched an investigation into suspected human smuggling.

800 Ethiopians may be forcibly returned to Ethiopia - Norway Today

TOPICS:Asylum SeekerGovernmentNorway

Ethiopians may now be forced to return to Ethiopia Photo: Håkon Mosvold Larsen / NTB scanpix

POSTED BY: ATLE JOHNSEN 22. FEBRUARY 2016

800 Ethiopians living in Norway without having legal residence may now be forcibly returned to Ethiopia, according to news channel NRK.

Ethiopia has previously refused to accept the returns, but authorities in the country have now changed their minds. Ethiopia entered into a return agreement with Norway in January 2012, but has so far only been willling to accept people who return voluntarily.

Jøran Kallemyr (Photo) was in Ethiopia just before he resigned as Secretary of State in the Ministry of Justice recently. He then got guarantees from the Ethiopian Foreign Minister, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, according to NRK.

– The Foreign Minister, who is also a candidate to become secretary general of the World Health Organization, have said they will follow this through. We have a wide cooperation with Ethiopia on a number of development areas, so we expect them to accept their own citizens, he said.

Source: NTB scanpix / Norway Today

Ethiopians, Somalis flooding into Yemen despite conflict: UN - Yahoo News

 

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Somali refugees at a UNHCR camp in Kharaz, 170 kms west of the Red Sea port of Aden in Yemen (AFP Photo/Khaled Fazaa)

Geneva (AFP) - Nearly 100,000 Ethiopians and Somalis last year travelled by boat to Yemen despite the conflict raging there, the UN said Tuesday, warning about the dangers of the journey.

"Clearly it's extremely dangerous, both for the journey and for what they meet inside Yemen," UN refugee agency spokesman Adrian Edwards told AFP.

His warning came less than two weeks after 36 people drowned trying to reach Yemen on January 8.

Ninety-five people meanwhile were reported drowned trying to make the journey last year, making it the second deadliest year recorded to date on that route, Edwards said.

The high death toll reflects the large numbers still trying to reach Yemen, even as the country has collapsed into a brutal civil war.

According to the latest UNHCR data, 92,446 people arrived in Yemen by boat last year -- a full two-thirds of them since the conflict in the country escalated dramatically in March.

That marks one of the highest annual totals in more than a decade, UNHCR said.

Nearly 90 percent of the arrivals, 82,268, were from Ethiopia, while the remainder were Somalis, it added.

Edwards described the figures as "disturbing", lamenting that "people still seem to be uninformed about the severity of the situation in Yemen."

Some 6,000 people -- around half of them civilians -- have been killed in Yemen since conflict there escalated last March with the start of a Saudi-led bombing campaign against rebels, according to UN numbers.

More than 2.5 million others have become internally displaced and another 168,000 have fled Yemen since March, the UN said.

Edwards said smugglers were clearly organising the boatloads of people headed to the war-torn country and suggested the information they had and were sharing about the situation on the ground was not completely accurate.

"People continue to arrive despite unprecedented escalated internal conflict in Yemen, and tragically more people continue to lose their lives trying to cross the sea in overcrowded, unseaworthy boats," Edwards told reporters in Geneva.

In the incident on January 8, 106 people had been on a boat heading for Yemen when it ran into difficulties, Edwards said, quoting information from Somaliland authorities.

There were 70 survivors -- all but one of whom was Ethiopian Oromo -- and 36 people perished, he said.

Somalia boat tragedy leaves 122 Ethiopians and Somalians dead

 "Somalia boat tragedy leaves 122 refugees dead
Published: 9:10 pm, Sunday, 10 January 2016


At least 112 refugees have died when a boat carrying Ethiopians and Somalians sank off the coast of the Somaliland autonomous region in northern Somalia.

The sinking occurred on Friday after the vessel suffered technical problems, regional health department official Abdurahman Yasin said.

'The coast guard rescued 75 people and local residents spotted 112 bodies' that were washed ashore, he added.

The injured are being treated at a health centre in the nearby town of Berbera.

Some three members of the crew of the stricken vessel were arrested as they tried to flee into nearby mountains and they will be questioned by authorities, Ahmed Abdi Falay, the chairman or governor of Sanag region, said.

Every year, thousands of people die in the waters off the coast of Africa while trying to reach Yemen in order to escape conflict ridden situations and poor economic prospects at home.

Yemen serves as a gateway to the rich Gulf countries in the Middle East.

Somalians, Eritreans and Ethiopians make up for most of the refugees who look to cross the Gulf of Aden and the Red Sea trying to reach Yemen and beyond in precarious boats, often controlled by unscrupulous human traffickers.

EFE"