Egypt police kill 15 Sudanese migrants at Israel border

Egyptian officials in the Sinai Peninsula say police killed 15 Sudanese migrants and wounded another eight who were trying to jump the border fence into Israel. 

The officials say police opened fire on the migrants Sunday after they ignored warning shots and sprinted toward the fence. The security forces arrested another eight Sudanese migrants who were not wounded. 

Israel's Interior Ministry says more than 45,000 African migrants and asylum seekers are in Israel. Many are fleeing conflict and persecution and are seeking refugee status.

A recent UN report detailed how Eritrea, under Isaias Afwerki's iron-fisted regime for the past 22 years, has created a repressive system in which people are routinely arrested on a whim, detained, tortured, killed or disappeared.

Most of those in Israel illegally and who have not been detained live in poor areas of southern Tel Aviv, where there have been several protests over their presence.

Israel has had difficulty managing the situation and rarely grants refugee status arguing that they are economic migrants whose swelling numbers threaten the country's 'Jewish character'.

All Egyptian officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they are not authorised to speak to the media.