AL-ARISH: Egyptian authorities on Saturday swooped on a suspected people trafficking safe house detaining 30 African migrants, and in a separate raid shot dead an Egyptian smuggler.
Police arrested the Africans in a safe house close to the Suez Canal suspected of preparing to sneak across the frontier into Israel, in the first raid of its kind in Egypt.
Thirty illegal African immigrants were hiding in a people-trafficking house in the middle of the countryside, close to the town of Qantara, northwest of Ismailia (Suez), waiting to cross the Suez Canal and cross the border between Egypt and Israel, a security official said.
It is the first time that the authorities have arrested illegal immigrants in a house before being taken to the border by the traffickers, added the official, who requested anonymity.
The raid followed a tip-off and police discovered whole families of Eritrean, Ethiopian, Sudanese and Ghanaian suspected migrants.
Traffickers hide them from police, then split them into groups to make it easier to transport them through Sinai without being intercepted by the police, the official added.
In a separate incident, an Egyptian smuggler was shot dead after attempting to sneak a group of Africans across the border south of the town of Rafah, a security official said.
The smuggler was earlier identified as an African migrant.
Police first thought the victim was an illegal migrant because he had no identity papers and was with a big group of Africans, the official said.
But Bedouin chiefs later identified his body as that of Ahmed Salim Oueida, 34, he added.
Police opened fire on a group of African migrants who were trying to cross the border into Israel south of Rafah, from the Sinai peninsula, the official said earlier.
The 250-km Egyptian-Israeli frontier has become a major transit route for migrants, asylum-seekers and drug smugglers.
Dozens of migrants have also been arrested in recent months as Egyptian police try to halt the constant stream into Israel. -AFP
