2010-03-29
ISMAILIA, Egypt (Reuters) - Egyptian police killed an Eritrean migrant as he tried to enter Israel on Monday, bringing the total number of migrants killed at the Sinai border this year to 12, Egyptian security sources said.

Border guards shot the 26-year-old and injured two others after they refused to stop, the sources said.

Police also captured 11 other African migrants, including three Ethiopian women and a two-year-old child, in a separate incident on Monday.

The Sinai border is a major transit point for Africans -- mostly Eritreans -- seeking work or asylum in Israel.

Israel has put pressure on Egypt to stem the flow. The United Nations and London-based rights group Amnesty International have called on Egypt to check its border guards' use of excessive force against unarmed migrants.

U.N. human rights chief Navi Pillay has asked Cairo to urgently launch an inquiry into what she said could be a "shoot-to-kill policy" by some Egyptian security forces. Egypt rejected Pillay's comments.

Egypt's security forces say they fire at migrants only if repeated orders to stop are disregarded.