CAIRO: A total of 170 people, including three Sudanese, have been arrested at the Egypt-Libya Sallum border crossing over illegal travel to Libya through desert routes, Youm7 reported Thursday.
This sort of arrests is frequent at Egypt’s borders, and is a part of security forces’ campaign to combat “illegal immigration.”
Despite security deterioration in Libya, dozens of Egyptian and African migrants are trying to illegally cross the border to Libya in search for a better life either in the oil-rich country or through traveling to European countries in the Mediterranean coastline.
On the other hand, official figures indicate that some 54,810 Egyptian nationals have arrived at the border fleeing the war-torn Libya since the beheading of 20 Egyptian Copts in mid-February by Libya’s Islamic State (IS) group.
At least one million Egyptians have fled Libya in the wake of the 2011 uprising. The country was one of the biggest destinations for Egyptian laborers.