Macedonia Detains 100 Syrian, Iraqi Immigrants

Macedonian police said Monday they have detained more than 100 Syrian and Iraqi immigrants, among them women and children, hiding in a train transporting coal from the Greek port of Thessaloniki.

"The immigrants are mainly from Syria and Iraq and they came to Greece from Turkey," Ivo Kotevski, spokesman for the Interior Ministry told AFP.

They were detained overnight Sunday at a train station in central Macedonian town of Veles, Kotevski said.

The immigrants had paid 3,200 euros to reach Turkey, and additional 600 to 800 euros to be transported from Greece to Serbia through Macedonia, Kotevski said.

Police were still looking for the organizers of the human trafficking network, he added.

Macedonia is on the so-called "Balkan route" of illegal immigration into Europe.

Most of the immigrants passing through the country this year have been of Syrian, Pakistani, Afghan and Somali origin, usually coming to Macedonia from Greece.

Relatively few seek asylum in the country of two million people, and those that do are held in a detention center in the capital Skopje.