African people continue to flee homes

TAIZ, June 17(Saba) – Police in Thubab district, Taiz, have found
the bodies of two Somali refugees, ages 30 and 50, who apparently
naturally died.

Somali refugees continue to arrive in Yemen almost daily.

In the last few days, Yemen received 45 refugees who arrived at Taiz
and Hadramout coastlines.

Twenty five Somali refugees arrived on Tuesday in Taiz city,
according to the media center of the Interior Ministry.

Police in the district said that among the refugees were eleven
women.

They were gathered and sent to Kharaz Main Refugees Camp in Lahj
province.

Meanwhile, Police in Hadramut handed over 23 Somali refugees to the
UNHCR at the temporary refugee center in Maifa'a, Shabwa.

The Africans who earlier arrived at the Broum coast included 9 women
and two children.

Last month, Yemen said that about 150.000 African migrants have
arrived in Yemen this year.

Migrants, mostly from African Horn countries, arrive in Yemen almost
daily, crossing a very dangerous sea where many die when overcrowded
boats capsize or when passengers are ordered by smuggling boats
owners to swim in deep waters to reach Yemen's coastlines.

Yemen says the number of African migrants, who have already reached
its territories, exceeds 700.000 people, a figure which the UNHRC
says is exaggerated.

So far this year, 131 African migrants, mostly from Somalia, drowned
while trying to reach Yemeni territories through sea and 66 others
went missing, according to the UNHRC.

In addition to economic overburdens migrants lay on Yemen's fragile
economy, recent official reports said that African migrants were a
key reason behind a surge in AIDS cases in the country.