SINAI - Police arrested 15 African migrants heading for the Sinai Peninsula where they hoped to slip across the border to Israel, security sources said Friday. The migrants, who included Ethiopians, Eritreans and one Sudanese, were hiding in a cave near Nakhl el-Hassana area in central Sinai, the sources said. "They said they were going to Israel to search for jobs," the sources added. Many of the migrants are fleeing conflict or poverty. The authorities are expected to hand them over to their embassies or put them on trial for illegal entry into Egypt. In most cases they can face a one-year suspended jail sentence and a fine. In a related development, the sources said that the police were investigating reports that people traffickers are holding up to 300 Eritreans hostage in the Sinai Peninsula. "So far we have not confirmed these reports given by local media" that about 300 migrants were being held hostage by traffickers in a mountainous region near the border with Israel, the sources said. Police were quizzing individuals allegedly close to known traffickers, they added.
