People smugglers throw migrants overboard

 

At least 20 migrants have drowned after smugglers threw them off a boat while making a crossing from Africa into the Middle East. 

Around 200 desperate people including children had been crammed on to a boat crossing from Djibouti to Yemen when smugglers panicked and began throwing them overboard overnight on Wednesday.

In total, 80 people - mostly Ethiopians and Somalians - were pushed into the water and forced to swim for shore in the pitch darkness, UN monitors said. 

Survivors said that at least 20 people had drowned.  Five bodies have washed ashore so far, workers from the UN's International Organization for Migration said.  They each paid around $900.