Sixteen people, 12 Sudanese, three Egyptians and one Somali were arrested in an illegal immigration attempt in Beheira Tuesday, Youm7 reported.
The 15 people attempting to enter Italy illegally were arrested in a microbus by coast guards in Edco, a town in the Mediterranean governorate, along with their Egyptian driver.
They told the police that they paid $2,000 each to two Egyptian nationals, Assayed al-Turki and Mohamed Abou Hassan, to make the arrangements for them to get to Italy. They will be referred to the prosecution.
On Saturday, 14 Egyptians were arrested in Edco before boarding a boat to Italy, confessing that had made a deal with an Egyptian “human trafficker” for 30,000 EGP ($3,370,) each.
On May 3, Italy announced that its vessels rescued around 1,800 illegal migrants from different nationalities over a 24 hour period coming from North African countries, Reuters reported. The day before, a boat carrying 159 migrants from African nations and Yemen was intercepted by Egyptian authorities off the Mediterranean shore during an attempt to travel to southern Europe.
