The United Nations refugee agency on says least 52 Somalis died after being adrift for 18 days in a broken smuggler boat ferrying them to Yemen.
The UNHCR said Yemeni coast guards rescued 71 survivors on the boast as it drifted near the coast. Most of the dead were thrown overboard by the passengers while four survivors later died in hospital, the UNHCR said quoting survivors.
It said the boat left strife-torn Somalia with 124 passengers aboard on September 3 headed for Yemen when it broke down a few hours later.
The crew abandoned the boat on another craft and never returned. Three passengers tried to swim ashore as it drifted near the coast of southern Yemen, and two managed to alert rescuers. The third never made it.
Hundreds of Africans die every year trying to reach Yemen, with many either drowning or being killed by pirates and smugglers in the dangerous waters separating Somalia and the Arabian peninsula.
Those who survive the journey register with the UN refugee agency and stay in refugee camps in Yemen, while others take jobs in the cities as laborers for less than a US$1 ($NZ1.47) a day.
The incident was the latest in an upsurge of people smuggling across the Gulf of Aden from Somalia, the agency said.
It added that so far this year, at least 31,192 people have arrived in Yemen on smugglers' boats -- including 21,201 Somalis and 9,854 Ethiopians. More than 228 people have died and at least 262 remain missing, the UNHCR said.
According to the agency, people smuggling subsides in the summer months because of bad weather in the Gulf of Aden, but picks up again in late August and September. It said that to September 23, at least 106 smuggling boats had transported 6103 people to Yemen.
