22 April 2008
Maputo — The Mozambican police intercepted one more truck in the western Tete province on Sunday, transporting 162 illegal male immigrants of Ethiopian nationality, aged between 20 and 40, reports Tuesday's issue of the daily 'Noticias'.
This is the second case of illegal immigrants arrested in Tete, travelling in a truck from Malawi in less than a month.
These immigrants were travelling in a truck of the Malawian company Chita One Investments, covered with a canvass, heading for Beira, the capital of the central Sofala province.
A source of the Public Relations of the Tete police command told reporters that the truck was intercepted at a checkpoint about 3:00 am. The illegal immigrants are under police custody and are to be deported back to Malawi.
'We also arrested the truck driver for further investigations. The case is even more complicated, because during interrogations the illegal foreigners never revealed their destination or their origin. Some will say they come from refugee centres in Malawi, while others say they are from Zambia', said the source.
Commander of the frontier guard troops in Tete, Ibraimo Manjera, said that about 700 illegal immigrants were caught in Tete in the last two weeks, and about 70 per cent of them were travelling in trucks, either in containers or covered by canvasses.
'Since early this month we have caught four trucks with illegal immigrants. There is no doubt that this is a network of trafficking in human beings. In most cases the illegals are put in containers or are put to lie down and covered with a canvass so not to raise any suspicions', he said.
Another truck, of the Malawian company ZAGAF, was intercepted, also in Tete, on 8 April, carrying 153 illegal foreigners in a container. They were all deported back to Malawi on 10 April.
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