DAR ES SALAAM, Aug. 15 (Xinhua) -- Tanzanian authorities said late Monday that they intercepted a fuel tanker ferrying 65 Ethiopian illegal immigrants in the southern highlands.
Majid Mwanga, the Mlele district commissioner in the southern highlands region of Katavi, said the empty fuel tanker was intercepted at around 1 p.m. local time by officials from the immigration and the Tanzania Forest Services Agency.
"The officials stopped the fuel tanker after they had noticed that its top covers were open," Mwanga told Xinhua in a telephone interview, adding 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 since they traveled in a tanker that might have been contaminated with fuel.
He said after they were found to be in good health, the immigrants were handed over to immigration authorities for legal action, adding that a Tanzanian national who was escorting the immigrants and the driver of the fuel tanker were also detained by police.
Mwanga added the fuel tanker was heading to Zambia from the Mwanza Region. ■