ADDIS ABABA: The deadly shipwreck in waters off Yemen’s coast over the weekend is weighing heavily on the hearts of many in Ethiopia. Twelve migrants on the boat that carried 154 Ethiopians survived the tragedy — at least 68 died and 74 remain missing.
When Solomon Gebremichael heard about Sunday’s disaster, it brought back heartbreaking memories — he had lost a close friend and a brother to illegal migration years ago.
“I understand the pain all too well,” Gebremichael told The Associated Press at his home in Ethiopia’s capital, Addis Ababa.
Although Ethiopia has been relatively stable since the war in the country’s Tigray region ended in 2022, youth unemployment is currently at over 20%, leading many to risk dangerous waters trying to reach the wealthy Gulf Arab countries, seeking a better life elsewhere.
Mesel Kindeya made the crossing in 2016 via the same sea route as the boat that capsized on Sunday, traveling without papers on harrowing journeys arranged by smugglers from Ethiopia to Saudi Arabia.
“We could barely breathe,” she remembers of her own sea crossing. “Speaking up could get us thrown overboard by smugglers. I deeply regret risking my life, thinking it would improve my situation.”
Kindeya made it to Saudi Arabia and worked as a maid for six months, before she was captured by authorities, and imprisoned for eight months. By the time she was deported back to Ethiopia, she had barely managed to earn back the initial cost of her journey.
“Despite the hardships of life, illegal immigration is just not a solution,” she says.
Over the past years, hundreds of migrants have died in shipwrecks off Yemen, the Arab world’s most impoverished country that has been engulfed in a civil war since September 2014.
“This shows the desperation of the situation in Ethiopia for many people,” according to Teklemichael Ab Sahlemariam, a human rights lawyer practicing in Addis Ababa.
“They are pushed to head to a war-torn nation like Yemen and onward to Saudi Arabia or Europe," he told the AP. “I know of many who have perished.”
And many of those who get caught and are sent back to Ethiopia try and make the crossing again.
“People keep going back, even when they are deported, facing financial extortion and subjected to sexual exploitation,” the lawyer said.
Ethiopia's foreign ministry in a statement on Monday urged Ethiopians “to use legal avenues in securing opportunities.”
“We warn citizens not to take the illegal route in finding such opportunities and avoid the services of traffickers at all cost,” the statement said.
African Union spokesperson Nuur Mohamud Sheek called for urgent collective action in a post on social media “to tackle the root causes of irregular migration and the upholding of migrant rights and to prevent further loss of life.”
Yemen is a major route for migrants from East Africa and the Horn of Africa countries.
About 60,000 migrants arrived in Yemen last year, down from 97,200 in 2023 — a drop that has been attributed to greater patrolling of the waters, according to a March report by the UN’s migration agency, the International Organization for Migration.
In March, at least two migrants died and 186 others were missing after four boats capsized off Yemen and Djibouti, according to the IOM.