KHARTOUM, June 26 (Reuters) - Sudanese authorities have arrested up to 18 members of a people-smuggling ring in the east of the country who had been moving African refugees to Europe and the Mediterranean region, security sources said on Thursday.

Thousands of African migrants cross illegally into Europe every year with the aid of people-trafficking gangs and many have died trying to cross the Mediterranean.

"We have arrested a number of people who were working inside the refugee camps and working as the mediator to smuggle people through a network of rings to the region and then into Europe and the Mediterranean," one security source told Reuters.

East Sudan houses tens of thousands of Eritrean, Ethiopian and Somali refugees.

Newspapers have said those arrested were smuggling people into Israel across the desert border with Egypt.

A security source said the gang made people pay 1,000 to 2,000 Sudanese pounds ($500 to $1,000) to be taken through the desert to the border with Egypt and beyond.

"We arrested most of them so it will stop for the time being," the source said, But some had escaped and could put the smuggling network back together in due course. (Reporting by Opheera McDoom; Editing by Giles Elgood)

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