50 Ethiopians arrested in Nairobi while being smuggled to South Africa
Police in Nairobi over the weekend arrested 50 Ethiopian nationals as they were being smuggled to South Africa.
According to officers, all the foreigners aged between 14 and 45 were to be smuggled to South Africa on November 2, 2023.
The first group was nabbed in a house within John Saga area in Huruma, Nairobi County.
“When they were arrested they did not explain or show what they were doing in the country. They neither spoke in English nor Kiswahili,” an officer attached to the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) who was involved in the operation told Nairobi News.
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The officer further revealed that the foreigners had been living in the house where they were arrested for more than a week.
Speaking through an interpreter, the foreigners told the police that they had been promised to be taken to South Africa.
The other group of 31 was found in a house in Komarock as they waited to be smuggled to South Africa as well.
The foreigners, who were aged between 14 and 45, was found in a maisonette that they had shared for the past week.
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The arrested foreigners told police they had not eaten for days and were on their way to South Africa. They are currently being held at the Kayole Police Station in Nairobi County.
These are the latest group of Ethiopian nationals who have been arrested in recent times for being in the country illegally.
According to police, most of the aliens from Ethiopia use the Moyale route to try and find their way to South Africa and the Middle East, oblivious of the risks they expose themselves to.
Officials from the Transnational Organised Crime are conducting joint operations to deal with the issue of human smuggling.