2010-03-27

ISMAILIA, Egypt (Reuters) - Egyptian police shot dead two African migrants as they tried to cross the border into Israel on Saturday, security and medical sources said.

Five other African migrants were injured, and police detained a further three, the sources said.

Egyptian police have killed 11 migrants this year, and at least 19 were killed last year.

The Sinai border is a major transit route for Africans seeking work or asylum in Israel. Eritreans are the largest group attempting the journey, although Ethiopians and Sudanese also make the trek.

Egypt has come under pressure from Israel to staunch the flow, while rights groups complain about the methods of the border police.

An Israeli journalist was arrested this month at the border after paying smuggling gangs to let him witness their operations and slip back into Israel with a group of migrants. He was released a week later.

The United Nations and Amnesty International have called on Egypt to check its border guards' use of excessive force against unarmed migrants. Egypt rejected comments by the U.N. human right chief earlier this month, saying they were "full of mistakes and incorrect allegations".

Security forces say they fire at migrants only if repeated orders to stop are disregarded and that smugglers who ferry migrants to the border sometimes fire on security forces.