The Mozambican police in the northern province of Nampula arrested in the early hours of Monday, 141 illegal immigrants, all from Somalia, who were traveling in two trucks, hidden under tarpaulins.“These foreigners were being transported in two Mitsubishi Fuso trucks. It appeared that the vehicles were transporting merchandise”, said Miguel Bartolomeu, of the Nampula Police Public Relations Office, cited by the independent television station, STV.According to Bartolomeu, these illegal immigrants are supposedly handled by a network of human traffickers operating in Nampula. The truck drivers who transported these immigrants tried to use alternative routes as a way to avoid police checkpoints, a plan that did not work since the police authorities had already guessed the intentions of the drivers.Saide Omar, one of the drivers, said that, according to the instructions he had received, the immigrants were heading to Chimoio, capital of the central Mozambican province of Manica.Most illegal immigrants use Mozambique as a transit point to neighboring South Africa. The flow of Somalis appears to have increased greatly in recent months, with hundreds being detained in the northern provinces.This is the second mass arrest announced in the space of a week. On 18 November, the Nampula police announced the arrest of 97 Somalis in the district of Murrupula, who were being carried in a container.
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