Tanzanian authorities said on Monday that they intercepted a fuel tanker ferrying 65 Ethiopian illegal immigrants in the southern highlands, an official said.
Majid Mwanga, the Mlele District Commissioner in the southern highlands region of Katavi, said officials from the Immigration and Tanzania Forest Services Agency intercepted the empty fuel tanker at around 1.00 p.m. local time.
“Officials stopped the fuel tanker after they noticed its top covers were open,” Mwanga told Xinhua in a telephone interview.
He added that after inspecting the tanker they found the 65 illegal immigrants squeezed inside.
Mwanga said the authorities took the illegal immigrants to the hospital for a medical check-up.
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According to him, they were travelling in a fuel-contaminated tanker.
After certifying them healthy, he said, the immigration authorities took the immigrants into custody for legal action.
The commissioner added that the Police also detained a Tanzanian national, who was escorting the immigrants, and the driver of the fuel tanker.
Mwanga added that the fuel tanker was heading to Zambia from the Mwanza Region. (Xinhua)
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