Over 40 Migrants Found In Greek Container Truck - Reports

Forty-one undocumented migrants were found in the back of a container truck near the northeastern Greek city of Xanthi on Monday, the police were cited as saying by media

ATHENS (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 04th November, 2019) Forty-one undocumented migrants were found in the back of a container truck near the northeastern Greek city of Xanthi on Monday, the police were cited as saying by media.

Earlier reports gave the number of illegal migrants as more than 80.

The truck was stopped for search after passing the turnpike on a toll road to the port city of Thessaloniki, according to photos published by Xanthinews website.

The migrants were all reportedly men in their 20s and 30s, most of them Afghans.

Ambulances were called from cities nearby as they appeared to be struggling for breath. Police said they would not have survived the trip.

Fifteen people had to be hospitalized in Xanthi. The driver of the truck, a young Georgian, was arrested.

Human traffickers in Europe use refrigerated and poorly ventilated containers to smuggle people, hauling as far as Asia and Africa, to well-off EU countries, but these journeys often prove fatal. The latest deaths of 39 Vietnamese were reported in the United Kingdom last week.