Greek police said they have arrested  last week six people on suspicion they held 10 illegal migrants captive for the past month in a shipping container outside Athens.

Police said the six people — three Greeks, two Pakistanis and one Indian — were suspected members of an international human trafficking ring that was smuggling migrants from Asia and the Middle East. The 10 migrants — eigh Pakistanis, a Somali and a Syrian — had paid $9,800 each to be smuggled from Pakistan via Turkey to Greece, officials allege.

On their arrival in Greece they allegedly were locked in the container in the coastal town of Aspropyrgos, west of Athens, as the suspected ring members demanded an additional $5,600 each,