Police in Tanga region arrests 34 illegal immigrants, one found dead 50 others ran away

POLICE in Tanga region have successfully arrested a total of 34 illegal immigrants who were being transported in two different sealed 40 ft containers at Kitumbi area in Handeni district near the border with the coast region. The police in Tanga region have said. Assistant Regional Police Commander for Tanga region, Senior Superintendant of Police (SSP) Juma Ndaki confirmed the arrest in a telephone interview yesterday from Tanga and said that, the police are interrogating the culprits whose nationalities have not yet been identified. Narrating how the police managed their arrest, he said that, good Samaritans informed a nearby police station in the area and who immediately started to monitor the movement of the two Lorries which they had suspected to have had carried people inside behind their trailers and managed to arrest them. He said one immigrant was found dead in a container and others about 50 including the drivers of both Lorries believed to be Tanzanians managed to run away and left their vehicles in the area. He affirmed that, the death might have occurred through suffocation while the aliens were being transported in air tight containers. SSP Ndaki mentioned the two lorries (Scania type) which bears the registration numbers T375 AKJ and its trailer’s numbers T884 AJZ, and another one bears the registration number T124 AJV and its trailer number T72 AJF whose owners he said are not yet been identified. He further noted that, out of the arrested culprits, 10 of them have been found to be in a critical condition and have been taken to Handeni district designated hospital for treatment, while the rest are being interrogated by the police.

Tanzania's top most police officer, Inspector General of Police, Said Mwema.

He said that, when the containers with the size of 40 ft each in which the immigrants were placed was opened, to a great surprise about 50 of the people inside came out and fled in different directions while under the police who currently is on the lookout to find out their whereabouts. However, he said adding that, because the task might be so hard for the few police at the scene, the police in the region has increased a task force that would help for hunting the fleeing culprits whom he said would be brought to court once arrested and the investigations is over. This the third incident that involved illegal human trafficking in the country in a series of one year with the last incident in which the illegal immigrants were transported in sealed trucks which at times lead to some of them dying due to suffocation.  In August 2012, over 50 Ethiopians died in Dodoma in a truck in Tanzania while being stealthily transported through to South Africa in a sealed truck. Tanzania government spent 60m/- as transportation cost to fly back to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, a total of 80 illegal immigrants who survived the Dodoma tragedy. The Ethiopians were found dead in an air-tight container in June, this year, near Dodoma en route for 'greener pastures' in South Africa. A medical report confirmed that they had suffocated to death. In early December 2012, the minister for East African Cooperation, Mr Samuel Sitta, said during a visit to the Holili border post that the country was bound by international obligations not to offer passage for illegal aliens. He said there was a danger of the country being caught up in conflicts with other states if it allowed illegal immigrants to pass through its territory on the so-called humanitarian grounds.