RAFAH: Egyptian border police shot dead an African migrant and wounded another on Tuesday as they tried to enter Israel illegally, a security official told AFP.

The two men were trying to reach Israel from the Sinai peninsula and ignored police warnings to stop, the official said. The dead man had no identity papers, and the wounded man was Eritrean.

The porous 250-kilometre border has become a major transit route for migrants, asylum-seekers and drug smugglers. Israel has asked Egypt to clamp down on the traffic.

Egypt s policy of shooting migrants has generated harsh criticism from human rights groups. The migrants say they try to leave Egypt because of poverty and racism.

Police killed at least 28 migrants, none of them armed, in 2008. -AFP