Hiiraan Online
Thursday, May 26, 2016
Migrants pictured aboard a dinghy boat yesterday as they are approached by the SOS Mediterranee's ship Aquarius, background . /AP photo
MOGADISHU (HOL) –Security forces in central Somalia arrested dozens of people, mostly young men suspected of attempting to travel to northern Somalia from where thousands of migrants usually set off in rickety boats to Middle East and North Africa each year, police said Thursday.
More than 500 people, mostly Somalis drowned after their rickety boat capsized in the Mediterranean Sea last month last year, prompting calls for Somali officials to fight human trafficking networks operating in the impoverished horn of Africa nation.
Authorities in Adado town said the latest arrests were made after police stopped Lorries carrying more than 70 passengers which was heading to Bosaso, the commercial of Puntland, a semiautonomous state in northeastern Somalia from where human traffickers often smuggle hundreds of people fleeing conflict and poverty in the horn of Africa nation travelling to Middle East in a bid to reach Europe.
Omar Maalin Ali, a police chief in the town in Galgadud region told reporters that some of the arrested included suspected militants who were trying to sneak into northern Somalia to join fighters battling security forces in Puntland.
“Most of them were very young, or under 20 – our main aim is to stop the flow of the people fleeing their country.” He told reporters.
Thousands of Somalis embark on dangerous sea journeys to Middle East and Europe, in hopes of a better life every year.
Their latter has fueled human trafficking market which has become more lucrative in recent years, with Libya and Yemen remain two key departure points for migrants setting off to Europe and Middle East.