GENEVA, Feb 24: Six migrants were drowned and 11 others are missing presumed dead after human traffickers forced them into the sea during a clandestine trip across the Gulf of Aden, the UN refugee agency said on Tuesday.

The traffickers were carrying 52 Somalis and Ethiopians on board the boat, one of seven that reached the coast of Yemen on Friday after crossing from Somalia, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNHCR) said.

Seventeen of those on board were forced to jump into the sea as the boat reached Huseysa, on the Yemeni coast 500 kilometres (300 miles) east of Aden.

“When the smugglers noticed the presence of the Yemeni police onshore, they refused to get closer to the coast and forced passengers overboard in deep water,” the UN agency said in a statement released at its Swiss headquarters.

Survivors said the boat left Thursday from Suweto, in Somalia’s Bossasso region.

The agency citing initial reports said 35 people reached the shore and were provided with first aid, food and water by the Society for Human Solidarity before they were transported to the UNHCR’s Mayfa’a Reception centre.

“This is the third fatal incident since the beginning of 2009. So far this year, a total of 168 boats and 9,449 people have reached the Yemen coast.

To date, the death toll stands at 47 people, with 23 bodies buried and 24 missing at sea,” the statement said.—AFP