CAIRO, Jul 10 (Aswat Masriya) – Egypt’s naval forces stopped two boats carrying illegal migrants from reaching Europe via the Mediterranean Sea, the Egyptian Military Spokesman said on Sunday. 

Egyptian naval forces spotted two fishing boats off the coast of Egypt’s Alexandria, carrying 152 persons, who included Egyptians, Ethiopians, Eritreans, Palestinians, Syrians and Yemenis, as well as Sudanese and Somali nationals, Brig. Gen. Mohamed Samir added in the army statement.     

The naval forces provided medical care for the migrants and handed them over to “relevant authorities to take legal measures against them as necessary,” he said. 

This is not the first time that the Egyptian military has announced foiling illegal migration attempts in the past few years. In June, the military spokesman said that Egyptian border guard forces stopped 445 persons before they could set sail from the country's coasts en route to Europe. 

Earlier, in April, Italy said that a boat capsized off Egypt's coast killing hundreds of migrants.

Conflicts and dire economic conditions in the Middle East and African countries pushed millions of migrants and refugees to cross over to Europe to flee poverty and war.  

Last September, the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees António Guterres said in a statement that "Europe is facing its biggest refugee influx in decades."

Guterres said then that so far more than 300,000 people have risked their lives to cross the Mediterranean Sea out of whom over 2,600 did not survive.