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Mogadishu, (insidesomalia.org) Dutch Minister for Development Cooperation, Albert Koenders arrived on Thursday in Aden on a visit to brief on Somali refugees' situations at Kharaz camps in Lahj governorate.
After his arrival, Koenders held talks with Minister of Water and Environment Abdul-Rahman al-Eryan on aspects of the bilateral cooperation between the two countries and ways of developing them.
During their meeting, they reviewed situations of the Somali refugees in the country, says Yenemi News Agency Saba.
The Dutch minister expressed happiness to visit Yemen to identify conditions of Somalia refugee in the Kharaz camps.
Over the past year, some 1,400 people are estimated by the United Nations to be missing, believed drowned, while trying to escape poverty and fighting.
The boat people of the Horn of Africa set off from this bustling port of Bossasso on the Gulf of Aden.
They hope to make the perilous two or three-day sea journey to Yemen.
Many of those that survive the voyage then go on to seek jobs in Saudi Arabia or other Gulf States.
But thousands have drowned in the bright, choppy waters, often because they are pushed off the boats before the vessels make it to the Yemeni coast.
And most can't swim.
The travelers are mostly Somalis fleeing fighting in the southern parts of Somalia and people from neighboring Ethiopia seeking refuge from a border war there.
Somali was lack of united central government since 1991 when the military regime of General Mohamed Siyad Barre was ousted and civil war existed in the country in 16 years.
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