Egypt arrests 100 Eritreans
2008-04-23 15:48
Cairo - Egyptian security forces have arrested 100 Eritrean migrants near a southern coastal resort who said they were heading to Israel in search of work, says a security official.
The Eritreans were detained on Monday south of the Red Sea resort of Hurghada, about half way between Cairo and Egypt's border with Sudan. In March, Egyptian security forces arrested 70 Eritrean migrants in the same area.
In recent months Egypt had arrested dozens of illegal immigrants, mostly Africans, trying to sneak into Israel from the Sinai in search of work. Several had been killed while trying to cross the frontier.
Egyptian police on Wednesday shot and seriously wounded a Sudanese and a Ghanean man who refused to obey orders to stop as they tried to cross the border. Last on Thursday, police shot dead an Eritrean man in the same area.
The 250km Egyptian-Israeli border had become a major transit route for migrants and asylum-seekers.