The police in Greece discovered 41 people in a refrigerated truck. The Greek authorities said that the main target persons should be young men from Afghanistan. Most of them were well, seven had been taken to a hospital with respiratory problems. The truck driver, a man from Georgia, was arrested.
A second suspect of Turkish origin who was in the driver's cabin escaped and was wanted by the police, reported the local news website xanthinews.gr. Policemen had tracked the vehicle in the morning on a highway in the direction of Thessaloniki near Xanthi.
Stavros Karipidis / REUTERS
Police vehicles stand next to the stopped refrigerated truck
The city is located in the north of Greece, just a few kilometers from the border with Turkey. Since the signing of the EU-Turkey Agreement in 2016 and increased naval patrols in the Aegean, smugglers are increasingly active in the region. Smugglers take advantage of the plight of many people and transport migrants from different parts of the world to Europe. The migrants pay high prices for their smuggling and risk their lives in illegal transports.
Almost two weeks ago, 39 bodies had been discovered in Britain in an industrial area east of London in a truck refrigerated container. According to the police, the victims were believed to be Vietnamese citizens.