140 ILLEGAL MIGRANTS DETAINED

The Mozambican police detained 140 illegal migrants, most of them Somalis, in the week between 4 and 10 December, according to the interim spokesperson for the General Command of the police, Raul Freia.At a briefing with the press on Tuesday, Freia said that, in addition to the Somalis, the migrants arrested include citizens of Pakistan, Bangladesh, Ethiopia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.108 of the migrants were arrested as they were crossing the central province of Zambezia in two trucks. Freia said that, when the drivers of the trucks realized that the police were pursuing, they accelerated in an attempt to escape. One of the drivers lost control of his vehicle, which overturned, killing one of the migrants.Freia said the authorities are now dealing with the paperwork required to send he migrants back to their countries of origin.But repatriation goes in both directions. Freia said that last week the police received 160 Mozambicans repatriated from South Africa, where the South African authorities regarded them as illegal immigrants.He said the police had also detained 764 people caught crossing the country’s borders illegally. Of these, 376 were Mozambicans, 206 Malawians, 168 Zimbabweans, 10 Tanzanians, two Zambians and two South Africans.Freia said that 118 people were arrested in connection with a variety of other crimes during the week. During these police operations, four cars that had been stolen at gunpoint in Maputo city and province were recovered from criminal gangs,