The refugees start their journeys from the Somali port city of Bossaso aboard Adeni ships. "Smugglers operating in the Gulf of Aden are notorious for their brutality and take advantage of the extreme vulnerability of the refugees and migrants," the group said in a report. "Abuses are the rule, not the exception."

Most of the migrants are Somalis hoping to escape their war torn homes for better economic opportunities. Smugglers beat them into submission on their journeys and throw people overboard to lighten the load or avoid arrest. Stories of smugglers throwing dozens of Somalis into shark infested waters are common. At the end of May, about 400 people have been confirmed either dead or missing.

The increased influx of people in search of a better life has created a very large social class. Somali refugees face prejudice and extreme hardship in a country foreign to them. Some make it into slum-like refugee camps, others end up on the streets of major cities. "Yemen is facing a major dilemma, particularly because of the continuous influx of African asylum seekers," Vice President Abd Rabu Mansour said in a speech this week in the capital San'a. "The international community needs to find speedy solutions for the Somali crisis."