The Deadly Journey: Ethiopian Migrants and the Red Sea Route

A vessel carrying 154 Ethiopians migrating to Yemen capsized early Sunday off the Yemen coast, according to the UN International Organization for Migration (IOM). Currently, sixty-eight of the migrants have been confirmed dead and seventy-four are still missing, leaving only 12 confirmed survivors. Dozens of bodies have been found on the shore of Abyan, in southern Yemen. 

Despite the political instability in Yemen, a large number of Ethiopians migrate to the country constantly in search of better living conditions. Undeterred by treacherous sea conditions they would have to face while crossing through the Red Sea, or the fear of being exposed to violence, abuse, and exploitation, these Ethiopians braved through it to arrive at the Middle East with the hope of finding work in the region. 

Ethiopia, along with other countries in the Horn of Africa, has been considered notorious for sea migrations. According to an IOM report, 60,000 Ethiopians migrated to Yemen in 2024. The organization also recorded at least 558 deaths on the Red Sea route, 462 of them from boat accidents. Countries situated in the Horn of Africa, such as Somalia, Djibouti, and Eritrea, have witnessed a mass migration of Africans from the region due to drought conditions and rising levels of food insecurity. 

This event is just one of the many that have plagued “The Cradle of Humankind.” According to a Human Rights Watch (HRW) Report released in August 2023, it was revealed that Saudi border guards had killed “hundreds of Ethiopian migrants and asylum seekers” on the Southern border of Yemen between March 2022 and June 2023. The report detailed an incident of the death of an Ethiopian man by Saudi border guards for his refusal to rape two girls who survived with him after an explosive weapons attack. Upon his refusal, they coerced a teenage boy to rape the girls. In another chilling event, Saudi border agents asked Ethiopian migrants to choose which part of their body they would like to be shot, before shooting them at close range. 

In an article by The Guardian, titled “Lonely graves, scattered bones: the stark reality of one of the most overlooked and fastest-growing migration routes,” detailed stories from survivors are laid bare. One of the stories included that of an eighteen-year-old migrant, Omar, who left Ethiopia after a heavy rain destroyed his family farm.  While travelling through the desert, Omar counted the bodies of 10 people who had died on the way. He had to leave behind three members of his group because they were too weak to walk. Getting to Yemen, he was kidnapped by an armed gang, beaten with sticks and metal bars, and demanded to pay a ransom of 150,000 birr for his release. Omar recounts the harrowing experience, stating, “They said, ‘If you don’t have the money, we’ll kill you.’” Although he was eventually released, at the time of the interview, he had yet to return home.

Deadly migrations continue to haunt the Horn of Africa, and with the rising conflicts in Africa and unbearable living conditions, the number is set to rise as Africans dare to hope for a better life beyond the shores of the continent. As Nadia Hardman, of the HRW, notes in her conversation with The Guardian, without accountability for Saudi Arabia’s abuses and urgent intervention, desperate migration and its deadly toll will only continue.