Mozambique Seizes Truck with 155 Illegal Aliens

Mozambican police have seized a container truck carrying 155 foreigners - one of whom was found dead - from war-torn Ethiopia and Somalia, according to police spokesman Pedro Cossa on Wednesday.

Cossa told APA in an interview that one of the illegal migrants had died of asphyxiation in the truck, and a further 50 were in severely weakened condition, and required medical care.

“We seized a truck on Sunday carrying 155 illegal immigrants from Ethiopia and Somalia. We found that one person died from asphyxiation and 50 others in a very bad state.

“We found that the driver of the truck is a Mozambican who entered into the country from Malawi, and was driving through Tete province en route to the port city of Beira, where the clandestine migrants would have been unloaded,” he said.

He added, “the police opened the container and found 68 young Somalis and 87 Ethiopians. The health authorities were called in to revive those who were seriously ill.”

According to Cossa, the driver has been arrested and the aliens would be repatriated to Malawi, where they came from before arriving in Mozambique.

Apparently the passengers had traveled for many hours from a refugee camp in Malawi inside the windowless metallic container, without any food or drinking water.

This is the second group of illegal foreigners to be repatriated to Malawi in less than a week.

Source African Press Agency

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