Group trying to smuggle migrants arrested in Greece

Greece has arrested a group of men who tried to smuggle a dozen migrants abroad in a truck from a port city connecting Greece to Italy, the coast guard said on Tuesday.

The four Greek nationals, including the driver, were arrested early on Monday “for forming a criminal group, for facilitating the transfer of undocumented foreigners abroad and for exposing them to danger,” the coast guard said.

The 12 migrants, who Greek media said were Somali and Iraqi, were also arrested. The Athens News Agency said the truck had set off from the northern city of Thessaloniki, Greece's second-biggest, and was discovered in the western port city of Igoumenitsa.

At least 880 migrants and refugees died trying to cross the Mediterranean last week, the UN refugee agency said on Tuesday, amid speculation that people smugglers may be trying to maximise their income before Ramzan begins.

This year is proving to be particularly deadly, with 2,510 lives lost in shipwrecks and capsizes, compared with 1,855 in the same period in 2015, UNHCR spokesman William Spindler said.

Nearly 204,000 people have made the perilous crossing to reach Europe so far this year, the UN high commissioner for refugees said.

Citing reports from survivors interviewed in Italy, it said smugglers may be trying to maximise income their before the start of the holy month of Ramzan, when Muslims fast from dawn to dusk. Ramadan is expected to begin around June 6 or 7.

“At the moment smugglers are packing people on boats that are barely sea-worthy and that in many cases are not meant to make the crossing. So what happens is that as soon as they depart from the shore they call for rescue and then the rescue services come and rescue them,” Spindler told a briefing. “In fact, it’s a race against time to get there before these boats sink, and on some occasions they get there too late.”