Puntland trying to stop people smuggling, says official

Somalia's self-declared autonomous region of Puntland is doing all it can to stop people smuggling, the governor of Bari region said on Monday from Bosasso, the region's commercial capital.

"We have set up a special taskforce to deal with this problem," Governor Muse Ghelle said. "We have made some arrests of smugglers and confiscated a number of boats and trucks used to ferry people."

Ghelle was reacting to reports that smugglers killed five people last week and threw them overboard.

The United Nations refugee agency, UNHCR, reported on Friday that on 12 and 13 December five Somalis and Ethiopians were beaten to death and thrown overboard by Somali smugglers in two boats crossing from the Bosasso to Yemen.

Yemeni fishermen later found the bodies.

"We have seen the reports of the deaths and we regret it," Ghelle said. "We are currently trying to confirm the information and are investigating when and where the boats left. We will go after anyone who is found to have been involved and bring them to court."

Ghelle said Puntland authorities had repatriated about 3,000 migrants this year. However, he said the problem was bigger than Puntland and needed to be addressed "regionally and internationally".

Ghelle added: "We are doing all we can but this is a huge problem and Puntland alone cannot contain it.

The international community - particularly agencies operating in Somalia - need to help."

A local journalist, who requested anonymity, told IRIN that despite the efforts of the authorities, many migrants were still arriving at Bosasso. He said between 1,000 and 1,500 migrants were in Bosasso, "and despite the repatriations many more seem to be coming every day".

The journalist said the smugglers often charge up to US $50, which could take the migrants, most of them very poor from southern Somalia or Ethiopia, more than a year to raise.

However, he said the smugglers were now avoiding the old pick-up points because the police were monitoring them.

"They [the smugglers] are now taking people to Shimbiro, [a coastal village 35 km east of Bosasso]," he said, adding that Shimbiro was less accessible and "so easier to avoid the police patrols. Two to three boats, each carrying about 75 people, leave every week.

"These are desperate people who would do anything to try to improve their lot," he added.

He said most of the migrants were a combination of political and economic refugees.

In search of safety, refuge from persecution or improved economic conditions, many Ethiopians and Somalis set sail from Puntland, trying to reach the Middle East or beyond.

According to UNHCR, at least 360 people have died during the crossing over the past year and 150 are missing.

ah/mw