Almotamar Net - Some 12,000 infiltrators and illegal residents, including 600 women and children, were arrested and will be deported, official sources said yesterday.

Ninety per cent of those who were arrested over the period from January to mid- October this year were arrested on the eastern coasts of Shabwa, sources added.

"A total of 11,250 of those held were Somalis, 650 Ethiopians and 155 others were from different nationalities," the state-run newspaper 26 September quoted an unidentified official as saying.

"During the first half of this month the security forces, in cooperation with the Coastguard Authorities, detained 350 infiltrators," the official said.