CAIRO: Egypt’s Interior Ministry foiled “an illegal immigration attempt” of 17 Sudanese nationals into Israel, North Sinai security directorate said in a statement Wednesday.
The arrested immigrants were referred to a military prosecution for investigation, the statement added.
Egypt’s borders with Israel witness incidents of drug-smuggling and illegal immigration. In February, six Sudanese people were arrested attempting to access Israel illegally. In a separate incident in the same month, two suspected smugglers were killed at the Egyptian-Israeli borders in an exchange of fire from the two countries and the smugglers, Haaretz reported.
In June, the Central Security Forces in North Sinai have thwarted an illegal immigration attempt into Israel by 26 people who hold African nationalities through shared borders in Sinai, state-run Middle East News Agency reported.
In 2014, an Israel court has passed law, hereby illegal African immigrants could be held in facilities in Southern Israel for up to a year, according to Times of Israel.