TO GO WITH AFP STORY BY OTTO BAKANOAn E

TO GO WITH AFP STORY BY OTTO BAKANOAn Ethiopian illegal immigrant from the Oromo region waits on December 5, 2010 near Obok, north of Djibouti's capital, for smugglers' boats to cross the Gulf of Aden into Yemen. Each year tens of thousands of Ethiopians and Somalis make the perilous crossing to Yemen in the hope of a better life away from home, where economic deprivation, persecution and conflict have devastated their lives. Many of them die on the way on board the often overcrowded and rotten small boats, while others, already weakened by long journeys from the hinterland to the coast, die in the hands of ruthless smugglers. while unrest is uprooting families in Somalia, hundreds of others are fleeing from neighbouring Ethiopia due to economic hardship. AFP PHOTO / TONY KARUMBA (Photo credit should read TONY KARUMBA/AFP via Getty Images)