Yemen says: 18 refugees drown after forced off ship [Archives:2003/668/Local News]

SANAA, Sept 13 (Reuters) – Eighteen refugees, mostly Somalis, drowned and more were feared dead after they were forced off a ship as it neared the coast of Yemen, a Yemeni official said on Saturday.
The official told Reuters the 18 were part of a group of around 100 refugees trying to reach Yemen by sea. He said 55 people, including a number of Ethiopians, had been rescued and around 27 were still missing after Thursday’s incident. He gave no further details.
The office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) says illegal migrants are often forced into the sea while still some way off shore by captains seeking to evade Yemeni coastal patrols.
Last month, the agency said a group of 30 Somali refugees was forced at gunpoint to jump into the water as they neared the southern coast of the Arab state. Only 18 of them reached shore.
The UNHCR estimates that there are more than 70,000 refugees in Yemen, most of them Somalis. The Yemeni government puts the figure at more than 165,000.
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