18 Ethiopians were Thursday arrested in a village in Wajir for being in the country.
They were arrested in Korondile Township days after they had arrived there from the Kenya-Ethiopia border.
They told police they had been ferried there by a smuggler who was to pick them for Nairobi and later to Tanzania and South Africa.
The group said they are looking for jobs in South Africa. They were all men over 18, police said.
They were Friday March 15 expected in court where police planned to ask for permission to repatriate them to their country.
This is the latest such arrest to be made in the country amid ongoing operations.
Tens of Ethiopians are smuggled in a worrying trend, officials say.
According to police, most of the aliens from Ethiopia use the Moyale route and try their luck as they head to South Africa and the Middle East oblivious of the dangers ahead.
Tens of the aliens are usually arrested in various places in the country as they wait to be moved to their next destinations.
Officials from the Transnational Organized Crime are conducting joint operations to deal with the issue of human smuggling.
Most of those arrested come to Kenya to seek jobs or are on transit.
What is puzzling is how the immigrants manage to evade many police roadblocks mounted from the Moyale border where they use to Nairobi because they travel in groups.
There are more than 20 roadblocks on the stretch, which raises the seriousness of the security agents taming the practice.
As part of efforts to deal with the menace, an Ethiopian national was sentenced to 31 years in prison for trafficking 12 fellow Ethiopian immigrants in Nairobi.
Yibekal Gatachew alias Adinan Mohamed Galano was sentenced by a Kahawa West Law Court on September 7, 2023 following his arrest on November 3, 2021 in Ngumo estate, Nairobi.
Most of those nabbed are usually repatriated to their country, police and immigration officials say.
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