Dozens killed in people smuggling tragedy

Sixty corpses of would-be refugees from Somalia and Ethiopia were found on a beach in Yemen over the weekend after smugglers forced many of them overboard, an international aid agency says.

Medicins Sans Frontieres (MSF) said the latest victims on the notoriously perilous smuggling route had came across the Gulf of Aden from the Somali port city of Bosasso, fleeing war and poverty in their homelands.

In one of two incidents that caused the deaths, smugglers tipped the refugees into the sea at night after noticing lights on land and fearing they would be spotted by the coastguard, MSF quoted survivors as saying.

"They forced us into the sea, even if the water was too deep. Several people did not know how to swim and they drowned," one survivor said. An eight-months pregnant woman was injured by the boat's propellor after being forced overboard.

In a second incident, MSF workers discovered a group who had made it to shore after their boat capsized. They said they had buried 23 fellow passengers.

"The boat was stuck almost upside down in the sand, not far from the beach. The fishermen were trying to find survivors underneath but they could not," said an MSF worker, Said.

"So I had to dive under. I managed to get in the hull and with God's help, we got two women and a man out safe."

- Reuters