Last update - 00:00 18/10/2007
Egypt police shoot, critically hurt Turkish migrant at Israel border
By Reuters
Egyptian police shot and critically wounded a Turkish man on Thursday as he tried to cross a barbed wire fence into Israel, Egyptian security sources said.
They said police shot the 35-year-old man in the head. At least six other people travelling with him and believed to be members of his family succeeded in crossing the border.
Dr. Imad Kharboush of the nearby el-Arish hospital emergency unit, said that the Turkish man was in a very critical condition after the bullet penetrated his head leaving him in a coma with a stroke after losing a great deal of blood.
The shooting came three days after Egyptian police shot and wounded two Turkish teenagers who, along with their father, were trying to cross the border to look for work in Israel.
In early and late July, Egyptian border guards shot dead two Sudanese refugees trying to sneak into Israel, while in mid-September an Eritrean man was killed under similar circumstances.
Egypt's Sinai peninsula is the main conduit for smugglers trying to take migrants into Israel for work or asylum. Israel estimates that 2,800 people have entered the country illegally through its border with Egypt in recent years searching for jobs. Most have been from Africa.
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