Police arrest 15 foreigners for being in Kenya illegally

NAIROBI, March 29 — The Kenyan police are on Wednesday interrogating 15 foreigners after being arrested in two separate security operations in Nairobi for being in the country illegally.
Nairobi County police commander Joseph ole Tito said the suspects — nine Ethiopians and six Indians — who were rounded up on Tuesday did not have legal documents to stay in Kenya.
Ole Tito said the nine Ethiopians who had arrived in Eastleigh residential estate in Nairobi aboard a bus that had originated Moyale town in northeast Kenya.
“The suspects did not have papers to warrant their being in the country,” he said, adding that they will be arraigned in court once the police are through with investigations.
The Ethiopians had traveled from Moyale to Nairobi and they planned to have a short stay before connecting to South Africa for greener pastures.
There are more than 20 roadblocks on the stretch, which raises the seriousness of the security agents to tame the practice.
The police commander said the six Indians who were arrested in Parklands area in Nairobi had no work permits. The Indians had been working at restaurants there yet they don’t have permits.
The Kenyan authorities have blamed the vastness of the region for the runaway influx of foreigners into Kenya through Moyale on Kenya-Ethiopia border and the porous border with Somalia.
Several aliens who find their way into the cells have tripled in the past few days over stretching the capacity of the cells in the East African nation.
But refugee rights organizations and aid agencies have blamed poverty in Africa for the rising cases of human trafficking.
They said the huge supply of labor both skilled and unskilled makes them vulnerable to criminal syndicates.

XINHUA