Cairo: Egyptian police shot dead an Eritrean migrant on Friday as he tried to slip across the Sinai peninsula desert border to Israel, a security source said.
The source said a police patrol spotted the 24-year-old man trying to get through the barbed wire on the border and ordered him to stop, opening fire when he did not.
Egyptian police have stepped up efforts in recent months to control the border with Israel, following an increase in human trafficking through Egypt. At least 18 migrants have been killed at the border since last May, the latest case reported in December.
The Sinai border is a main transit route for usually unarmed African migrants and refugees seeking work or asylum in Israel. Egyptian police say the smugglers who ferry migrants to the border region sometimes fire on security forces.
Egypt, which for years tolerated tens of thousands of African migrants on its territory, fears the unfettered flow of migrants at its Sinai border could pose a security threat in an area where Islamist militants sometimes find refuge.
