Forty-one Ethiopians were Monday night arrested from a house in Baraka estate, Mihango while being smuggled to South Africa.

The men had been brought to a house in the area waiting to be shipped out when police arrived.

Police who had been tipped off said they arrested two prime human smugglers behind the incident.

Head of Transnational Organized Crime Unit George Mutonyi said the two, a Kenyan and an Ethiopian, have been linked to many other smuggling scandals in the country.

He said those caught on Monday were crumbled in two rooms making their lives difficult. They had been there for four days while waiting to be driven out to the next unknown destination.

The victims did not have documents to qualify for their status in the country and were on transit, Mutonyi said.

“They had paid for this to happen but the conditions they lived in were bad,” he said.

The Ethiopians and the smugglers were on Tuesday, February 7 expected in court at Kahawa West where police planned to seek their deportation to their country.

The two suspects will face smuggling-related charges, said Mutonyi.

Dozens of Ethiopians are arrested in the country as they try to use this route to other places like Tanzania, Middle East and South Africa.

Police and immigration officials have decried increased cases of Ethiopian aliens nabbed in the country while on transit.

Mutonyi said the trend is worrying as the number of those being caught is on the rise.

“This is big business for smugglers or traffickers and must be stopped as it is illegal. Those caught are part of a larger human trafficking syndicate operating across the Horn of Africa that is responsible for trading in human beings,” said Mutonyi.

Officials from the Transnational Organized Crime are conducting joint operations to deal with the issue of human smuggling.

Tens of Ethiopians are annually arrested in Kenya while on transit and later deported.

Most of those arrested come to Kenya to seek jobs or are on transit.

They usually have a language barrier as they cannot communicate in English or Swahili.

What is puzzling is how the immigrants manage to evade many police roadblocks mounted from the Moyale border where they use to Nairobi.

There are more than 20 roadblocks on the stretch, which raises the seriousness of the security agents taming the practice.

Officials cite corruption as one of the reasons the business thrives on the route.