Officials said the migrants were fleeing poverty and are in search of jobs but have been detained at the Taiz governorate, south-western part of Yemen.

The Interior Ministry has ordered the Immigration and Passport Authority in the region and the Prisons Authority to coordinate efforts to arrange for the transportation of the detainees to Sana'a before being deported to Ethiopia.

The Yemen Immigration Department has deported over 800 Ethiopian nationals since the beginning of the year.

About 74,000 migrants from the Horn of Africa used to travel through the Red Sea to Yemen in the last year, which rise to 50% in 2008, according to the UN Refugee Agency.

Hundreds of them have died in recent years as they tried to cross the Gulf of Aden to Yemen.

The number of Somali migrants remained same in 2008 and 2009 but the migrants from Ethiopia increased to 42,000 in 2009. 5,032 migrants have crossed the Red sea to Yemen while dozens have died in 2010.