Every year tens of thousands of migrants attempt to engage on a
very risky trip across the Gulf of Aden, from the northern Somali
port of Bossasso heading to the southern coast of Yemen. Most of
them are Ethiopian, but large numbers are Somalis coming from the
troubled regions in the south of the country.

Desperate and vulnerable, they are all looking for a better
life. By the time they arrive in Bossasso they've already had a
rough and expensive journey behind them after which they have
little to lose. Many of them suffer abuse and exploitation at the
hands of smugglers and all of them incur high debts and face
extreme risks on the route. The last leg of the trip happens in
make-shift overcrowded boats and the crossing leaves many hundreds
dead, while the bodies of hundreds other are never found.

In Bossaso they re-group and prepare for this journey. There are
several "transit places" where they congregate and stay close to
each other. Such a place was the target of a grenade attack at the
beginning of February that has killed 22 and injured more than 70
others.

Ababa is 26. When her one-year-old child died five years ago,
she left the Gonder region in Ethiopia and headed for Addis Ababa
to look for work. In Addis she met Holef and last year they decided
to make the journey to Saudi Arabia, through Bossasso and Yemen.
After a long journey through the dangerous and rough terrain of
northern Somalia, they arrived at the port of Bossasso, the main
hub for the smugglers organizing trips across the Gulf of Aden into
Yemen. In the grenade attack Ababa lost both legs. Her husband lost
one.

Abdifatah is from Bale, a province in the Oromo region of
Ethiopia. He was in his 40's when his ox died making it impossible
to cultivate the land so he left his family and six children behind
and embarked on the journey to Yemen initially and then perhaps
eventually Saudi Arabia. He was severely wounded in the grenade
attack with a particularly serious open wound on his stomach.

Mohamed is an 18 year-old Oromo farmer from the Wallo region of
Ethiopia. In the attack he suffered an open fracture on his leg and
will require urgent surgery if he is to keep his leg.

Although they, along with another 18 seriously wounded Ethiopian
migrants were taken to a hospital in Bossasso immediately after the
attack, the lack of medical facilities there meant wounds have not
been adequately treated or fractures set, leading to infections and
a worsening of their conditions.

Like all the other Ethiopian migrants making the journey to
Bossasso and beyond, they left their homes because they could not
find work or because they could not make ends meet by farming their
land in Eastern Ethiopia. All they had was their strength and their
willingness to work which they hoped would help them make better
money for them and their families in the richer countries of the
Middle East.

Now they return home with amputated limbs or other severe
physical traumas that will make it extremely difficult to provide
for themselves, let alone their families.  But the return home
is still something. Since the attack, they and many other Ethiopian
migrants stranded in Bossasso unable to make the crossing now the
sea conditions have worsened, have been desperate to return to
Ethiopia.

IOM, in close cooperation with its partners in the international
community, especially the UN, and the authorities in Bossasso and
Garowe, the capital of Puntland, has coordinated an emergency
evacuation of 33 of the most vulnerable of these victims of the
grenade attack and their close relatives.

Before their departure to Dire Dawa in eastern Ethiopia, IOM
began tracing and contacting the families of those it was bringing
back but it's not an easy task when faced with extremely remote
rural areas with very poor communication networks. The continued
trauma the victims are experiencing has meant that some are still
too shocked and nervous, making it impossible to trace their
families so far. But the hope is that returning to Ethiopia will
help them to recover and IOM to trace their families.

Twenty-one of them will nevertheless have to spend some time in
hospital for urgent treatment and surgery before the process of
rehabilitation can begin. Their individual needs based on their
injuries and situation will necessitate a rehabilitation and
reintegration programme specifically designed for them
personally.

Working together with Ethiopian authorities, IOM will return all
33 to their final destinations home, but whichever way you look at
it, it's a long road ahead.