Smugglers forced more than 120 Somali and Ethiopian migrants into rough seas off Yemen on Wednesday, leaving 29 dead and 22 missing, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said.

The IOM said it had found the shallow graves of 29 migrants on a beach in the southern province of Shabwa. 

"The smugglers deliberately pushed the migrants into the waters since they feared that they would be arrested by the authorities once they reach the shore," an IOM emergency officer in Aden told AFP.