NAIROBI, May 16 (Xinhua) -- Kenyan police said Thursday they are interrogating 22 Ethiopian nationals who were arrested while being smuggled through Nairobi.
Director of Criminal Investigations George Kinoti said the victims were intercepted on Wednesday afternoon by police officers from Special Crimes Prevention Unit as they were being driven in two vehicles.
Kinoti said two prime human smugglers were also arrested in the operation along Thika super highway headed for Tanzania.
"This is big business for smugglers or traffickers and must be stopped as it is criminal," said Kinoti, noting that the aliens told police they were headed for South Africa for greener pastures.
The suspects said they had paid to be transported through Moyale border in northern Kenya to Tanzania where they would connect to South Africa.
The Kenyan authorities have blamed the vastness of the region for the runaway influx of foreigners into Kenya through Moyale on Kenya-Ethiopia borders and the porous border with Somalia
Several aliens who find their way into the Kenyan police 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 that the huge supply of labor both skilled and unskilled makes them vulnerable to criminal syndicates.
