ATHENS (Sputnik) – According to the local Proto Thema newspaper, majority of them are Syrians, Egyptians and Afghans. They were sentenced for smuggling migrants and refugees to the Greek islands. The hunger strike have been taking place for three days.
The media added that a total of 150 smugglers had been detained on the island, some 80 of them received different prison terms.
Disruption of human trafficking networks is considered by the European Union as one of the key steps to decrease influx of migrants from the Middle East and North Africa into the bloc. Over 1.83 million illegal border crossings were detected by the EU border agency Frontex in 2015.
