ISMAILIA, Egypt (Reuters) - Egyptian police shot dead two African migrants on Sunday as they tried to sneak across the border into Israel, security sources said.
Police identified one of the killed migrants as a 35-year-old Eritrean, the sources said. Both men were shot dead after ignoring orders to stop while trying to climb over the barbed wire fence marking the frontier.
The Sinai border is a major transit route for African migrants seeking work or asylum in Israel. Egypt has come under pressure from Israel to staunch the flow.
Egyptian police have killed at least 16 migrants so far this year, compared to 19 for the whole of 2009.
The United Nations and Amnesty International have urged Egypt to investigate the use of force against unarmed migrants.
Security forces say they fire at migrants only after their repeated orders to stop are ignored, adding that in some cases smugglers ferrying migrants across the border have fired on security forces.
Egypt ratified on Sunday a law imposing penalties on human traffickers that could reach life imprisonment or up to 500 million Egyptian pounds fine, state news-agency MENA said.
Reuters Africa
