| Submit your comments on this article |
| Europe |
| Eight Pakistani among migrants freed from Greek container |
| 2009-08-17 |
| Greek police on Sunday said they freed 10 migrants, eight of them from Pakistan, who had been kept in a shipping container in Athens and were mistreated by smugglers for a month. In a statement, the police said the migrants -- who also included a Somali and a Syrian -- had come into Greece via Turkey, and then were put into the container in the industrial suburb of Aspropyrgos. They were mistreated "daily" by smugglers who demanded that they each pay 4,000 euros ($5,700), on top of the 7,000 euros each migrant had already paid for their journeys, the police said. A Greek man, aged 60, has been arrested on suspicion of running a network that smuggled Pakistanis into Greece -- a gateway for migrants hoping to enter Western Europe -- via Turkey. Five suspected accomplices -- two Greeks, two Pakistanis and an Indian national -- are being sought. |
| Posted by:Fred |