Garowe (Sunatimes) Puntland police have arrested twenty eight illegal immigrants who were intending to travel to Yemen.

The immigrants were arrested in an operation that was today carried out by the police in Marer and Sweyta areas of Bosaso city. The detainees were taken to Bosaso police station.

Sources within Bosaso police told radio Bar-kulan that ten among those who were arrested were released after it emerged that they were small time businessmen in Bosaso. The other eighteen people have also requested to be taken back to Southern Somalia where they have previously traveled from.

Puntland authorities have vowed to stop human traffickers from smuggling people to Yemen.

Refugees from Somalia and other countries in the Horn of Africa usually travel to Yemen without valid documents. Hundreds of immigrants died while trying to travel to Yemen through the Indian Ocean and the Gulf of Aden using boats.

By Nuh Musse