Migrants shot by Egypt security while attempting to cross border into Israel

Ethiopian immigrants were among the 7000 people who were arrested and repatriated in Djibouti after a crackdown on illegal migration to the Red Sea state, according to police there.

Thousands of people try to cross from Djibouti to Yemen, aiming to head to wealthier parts of the Middle East and Europe.

Djibouti is one of the closest African countries to Yemen, and is safer than lawless Somalia for migrants from Ethiopia and the northern parts of Somalia.

"This period is the season to pass through the border because it is the cooler November-to-May season. Otherwise in the summer many immigrants die in the desert from thirst," Police Lieutenant Abdourahim Ali told Reuters.

The police said 6,723 immigrants mainly from Ethiopia and Somalia have been arrested and sent home this year. Djibouti caught and repatriated 16,091 people in 2007, and 12,579 in 2006.

Earlier this month, at least 53 Somalis drowned off the coast of Yemen while trying to cross from Somalia to the Arabian Peninsula.

Near-daily violence in southern Somalia from an Islamist-led insurgency against the Somali government and its Ethiopian allies has displaced hundreds of thousands.
Djiboutian police said a recent surge in violence in Mogadishu had caused increased numbers of would-be migrants to come into Djibouti.

Meanwhile, Egyptian police shot dead an Eritrean migrant on Thursday as he tried to slip across the frontier into Israel, bringing to 11 the number of migrants killed at the border this year, security sources said. The sources said two other migrants, from Eritrea and Sudan, were shot and wounded in the same incident when police opened fire on a group of migrants who disregarded orders to stop. All three migrants were men in their 20s and 30s, the sources said. Violence against migrants at the border has escalated since the start of the year, with police killing 11 and detaining scores of others, mostly from Africa.

By A Staff Reporter