Three people were killed Saturday when a boat carrying migrants sunk off the coast of Beheira governorate’s Edku city.
Border security forces arrested 31 of the survivors of the migration attempt, including 13 Syrians, 15 Sudanese, two Eritreans and one Egyptian, according to state-owned newspaper Al-Ahram.
Police forces also stopped 63 people, including five Sudanese nationals, while crossing the Egyptian-Libyan border from Salloum. The detainees will stand trial in a military court for their presence in a military zone.
Fourteen Jordanians were also arrested while attempting to illegally immigrate to Italy from Kafr El-Sheikh, state media reported.
On Monday, Egypt moderated a European-African agreement on an action plan to combat illegal immigration trafficking. The initiative came a few days after the bodies of 1,000 illegal immigrants were salvaged off the shore of neighbouring Libya.
Vessels carrying illegal immigrants fleeing poverty and war usually depart from Libya. Italy, the European country closest to Libya, receives the majority of illegal migrants, mainly from Syria, Mali and Eritrea. In 2014 alone, 170,000 migrants arrived in Italy by sea.
Thousands of migrants also attempt to reach Greece by land and sea. According to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), 219,000 refugees and migrants crossed the Mediterranean in 2014.
