The first conference on combating illegal immigration and human trafficking kicked off on Sunday under the auspices of Interior Minister Mahmoud Tawfiq.

The conference aims at identifying the risks of illegal immigration and human trafficking and their relation to organized crime.

It will also shed light on the role of police agencies in countering the smuggling of immigrants and human trafficking, while highlighting the need for uniting efforts to confront such crimes.

Attending the conference are Assistant Interior Minister and Head of the Drug and Organized Crime Combat Sector General Mohamed Barakat, Director of the Illegal Immigration Administration General Mohamed Awad, and the Head of the General Administration for Drugs and Organized Crime Combat General Magdy el Semari. 

Cairo raised its focus on this issue and introduced an illegal migration law following a September 2016 migrant boat disaster off its Mediterranean coast that killed hundreds.

According to the latest figures issued in June by the United Nations, there are 228,941 registered refugees in Egypt from 58 different countries including Syria, Iraq, Somalia and Sudan. 

Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi has said in previous speeches that Egypt is hosting more than five million refugees.