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

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

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