The Human Rights Watch has released a new report urging Yemeni and Saudi border officials to do more to prosecute human traffickers who take advantage of people fleeing desperate conditions in Africa.

Tens of thousands of African migrants make the perilous boat journey across the Gulf of Aden to Yemen, from where they illegally cross into Saudi Arabia with the help of smugglers.

Human Rights Watch says there is “a multimillion dollar trafficking and extortion racket” in Yemen that takes migrants to isolated camps, where they are abused until they pay more money. The rights group said in its 82-page report, released Sunday, that some security forces in Yemen are also involved in trafficking.

More than 259,000 illegal immigrants, mostly from the southern border, have recently been arrested by Saudi border guards.

At the same time, the border guards succeeded in arresting 4,343 smugglers, while a staggering 70 percent of illegal Yemenis tried to infiltrate the Saudi borders last year, according to statistics issued by the Directorate General of Border Guards.

The border guard arrested 28, 816 infiltrators in January, 33,005 in February, 26,413 in March, 24,344 in April, 22,279 in May, 77,508 in June, 25,553 in November and 21,378 infiltrators in December of 2013, according to statistics issued by the directorate. The border guards also arrested 615 smugglers in January 2013, 554 in February, 526 in March, 607 in April, 533 in May, 478 smugglers in June, 489 in November and 537 in December.

Brig. Mohammed Al-Ghamdi, Border Guard spokesman, said, “We have dug trenches, fixed barbed wires, planted thermal cameras, introduced a fingerprinting system for immigrants and intensified surveillance by security patrols in a bid to prevent infiltration.”

Khaled Al-Fakheri, a member of the Human Rights Commission, said, “The Saudi government has taken many measures against human traffickers and prevented scores of illegal migrants from crossing the Saudi-Yemeni borders.”

Al-Fakheri told Arab News that smugglers have made lucrative profits by helping Africans and Yemenis infiltrate the Kingdom after successfully exploiting the volatile security situation in Yemen.

“However, the recent security measures taken by Saudi security authorities have played a big role in restricting smuggler activity,” he said.