Tuesday, June 30, 2015
KHARTOUM, (Xinhua) -- Sudanese authorities on Monday rescued 154 illegal immigrants, most of them foreigners, out of the hands of human-traffickers at the Sudanese-Libyan border.
Brig. Mohamed Ibrahim, director of Sudan's Human Trafficking Control Unit, briefed the reporters about the rescue operation.
He said the group were on board of a truck whose driver was planning to smuggle them to a European country across Libya, and the truck broke down near the border area with Libya.
"The vehicle was found with the immigrants on board, some of them were in critical health condition", he noted.
Sudan has recently been witnessing increasing organized groups active in human trafficking and illegal immigration.
"We are coordinating with a number of embassies to lessen this crime which has great and interlocking dimensions," said Brig Ibrahim.
In October last year, Sudan hosted an international conference on combating human trafficking and illegal immigration with participation of African and European countries.
Ethiopia, Eritrea, Djibouti, Egypt, Libya and Tunisia took part in the conference besides Italy, Spain and France in addition to the International Organization for Migration and the United Nations High Commission for Refugees.