Samos authorities rescue 17 irregular migrants including children, arrest suspected trafficker

Seventeen migrants rescued on Samos were transferred by the island's Port Authority to a controlled facility the on Tuesday.

The 17 included seven men, four women (one of whom is pregnant), an infant, and five children. They had been abandoned by a speed boat near an inaccessible promontory, Prassos, in northeast Samos. Two migrants were found in the area, and the Turkish boat driver, 41, who is suspected of being a trafficker, was arrested by Samos police.

Shipping and Island Policy Minister Yiannis Plakiotakis reiterated the critical role of the Port Authority and Coast Guard in "protecting human lives and saving fellow humans that criminal trafficker rings starting from Turkey abandoned helpless on Samos."