EL ARISH, July 12: An African migrant was shot dead by Egyptian police as he crossed the border into Israel on Saturday, while 30 suspected illegal migrants were arrested in a separate raid, security officials said.

“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, an official said on condition of anonymity. “One of the migrants, whose identity has not yet been established, was hit by two bullets,” he added. The official could not say if the rest of the group were arrested or managed to flee.

The death brings to 17 the number of migrants killed by Egyptian police at the border since the beginning of the year.

Meanwhile, Egyptian police swooped on a suspected people trafficking safe house close to the Suez Canal and arrested 30 Africans suspected of preparing to sneak across the frontier, in the first raid of its kind in Egypt.—AFP

“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 Ismaliya (Suez), waiting to cross the Suez Canal and cross the border between Egypt and Israel,” a security official said.—AFP