GENEVA, Feb 16: At least 107 people have been confirmed dead after a smugglers boat carrying Somali and Ethiopian migrants capsized off Yemen this week, the UN refugee agency said on Friday.

“The government and UNHCR's office in Yemen report that 107 bodies have been buried and five people remain missing from two boats,” UN High Commissioner for Refugees spokesman Ron Redmond told journalists. One boat carrying 120 Somalis and Ethiopians capsized well offshore, witnesses said.

A second boat also carrying 120 people then forced all its passengers into the sea, before picking up the smugglers from the capsized vessel and heading back out into the Gulf of Aden.

According to survivor accounts, the 240 people were then stranded in the high seas for several hours before the Yemen military came to their rescue. A total of 235 people on two other smuggling boats made it to shore, the UNHCR said.

Over the past month, some 1,776 Somalis and Ethiopians have arrived in Yemen on 20 boats.

The latest casualties mean that at least 136 have died making the journey in that period. In 2006, UNHCR Yemen reported that some 27,000 people made the perilous voyage, with 330 deaths and another 300 still missing.—AFP