More Somali refugees in Yemen

HADRAMOUT, Feb. 23 (Saba) - Police in the eastern province of Hadramout have said that further 140 Somali refugees including 42 women and 9 children had arrived in the coast of Burm in the province.

The African refugees were gathered and handed over to the UN High Commissioner for
Refugees to take arrangements for their transfer to a special refuge in the province
of Shabwa as a prelude to transfer them to a main refuge in the Kharaz area of Lahj
province.

African refugees, most Somalis, continue to arrive in Yemen with those who have
already arrived in the country exceeding 800.000 refugees.

The refugees lay more burdens on the national fragile economy.

They usually arrived through the sea and many die either as overcrowded boats
capsize or as the refugees are enforced by the smugglers to swim until they reach
far Yemeni coasts.

Last month, two ferries carrying more than 300 Somali and Ethiopian displaced people
capsized off the Bab El-Mandab strait. Hundreds of the refugees onboard were feared
dead and many others were rescued.