Coast Guards arrest 28 illegal immigrants east of Algeria

The floating unit n°.356, belonging to the regional eastern group of the Algerian Coast Guards in Annaba, intercepted Sunday night two wooden boats in the sea, three nautical miles north of Ras Al-Hamra, and arrested 28 illegal immigrants aged between 9 to 47, including two women and three kids, an official at the coast guards said.

The majority of illegal immigrants descended from the districts of Annaba and its suburbs, east of Algeria. According to the same source, the process based on information received by the services of coast guards, indicating the existence of a group of youth in the sea, who took off at around half past nine at night, from the area of Joinville, o, board of two boats heading for Italy.

The coast guard monitored the place and arrested the illegal immigrants after a lengthy chase in the sea, as the captains of the two boats tried to escape but they failed. They were all jailed at the headquarters of the coast guards where they were subject to medical examination, before the hearings.

According to Echorouk sources, one of the women who were arrested on board of a boat along with 23 youth and 3 kids is divorced and has two children one of them did not exceed four years and that she came from the poorest slums in Annaba, east of Algeria.

During the process of pursuit by the naval units, the woman strongly disagreed with the interception and endeavored to escape from the clutches of coast guards to survive and reach what she calls “the other side” of the Mediterranean, exactly the Italian soil.

Same sources added that the other woman is 27 and lives deplorable and tragic circumstances. She came from Echat municipality adjacent to Annaba, east of Algeria, while the rest of youth, two of whom are university graduates.

The Algerian illegal immigrants were referred to the court where a lot of relatives and families came to attend the trial.