Sixteen migrants died and 49 others are missing and feared dead while making a perilous voyage in smuggling boats across the Gulf of Aden, the UN refugee agency said on Tuesday.'dhow' suspected of carrying. A team from a Canadian ship provide assistance to a 'dhow' suspected of carrying Yemen and Somalia, 11 suffocated, three were fatally beaten by smugglers and two drowned in three separate incidents that occurred in the last 48 hours, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees said in a statement.
At least two of the boats had set off from Somalia, but the migrants included non-Somalis, it added.
Conflict, famine and drought have pushed thousands of people to attempt the risky sea voyage.
This year alone, some 860 boats carrying 43,586 people have attempted the crossing and 273 migrants have drowned or are presumed dead, said the UNHCR.
"UNHCR staff in Yemen report an increasing number of larger smuggling vessels making the journey across the Gulf of Aden, which puts more lives at risk," it added.
Conditions on board were often very difficult.
In the latest tragedies, survivors from one boat said passengers were "repeatedly beaten and threatened by the smugglers during the journey."
In another boat, smugglers beat three people to death while another 10 died as a result of asphyxiation. An 11th suffocation case occurred on another vessel.
A third boat was sinking when an EU warship managed to rescue 38 of the 46 people aboard from the small vessel. Two bodies were recovered from nearby waters while another six people are presumed to have drowned.
While the EU warship had helped to rescue lives in this incident, UN human rights chief Navi Pillay pointed out that in many other cases, such migrants are turned away by authorities.
"In many cases, authorities reject these migrants and leave them to face hardship and peril, if not death, as though they were turning away ships laden with dangerous waste," she told the Human Rights Council.
"Their fate is thus sealed as they try to cross the Mediterranean, the Gulf of Aden, the Caribbean, the Indian Ocean, and other stretches of water,~ she added.
"In clear violation of international law, they are abandoned and rejected without proper check of whether they are fleeing persecution."
Italy has faced criticism lately for sending back boats of African migrants to Libya, after it concluded a controversial agreement with Tripoli earlier this year.
Pillay said the "hardship" of those stranded near the shores of Libya, Malta and Italy drew attention to the plight of these migrants and refugees, as she called on states to respect the human rights of individuals regardless of their status.
Topic: UN says 65 migrants dead, missing in Gulf of Aden (Read 1636 times)