North Macedonia: Migrants allegedly held to ransom, abused

SKOPJE, North Macedonia (AP) — Officials in North Macedonia have filed criminal charges against three Pakistanis and a Macedonian national for allegedly holding a group of migrants prisoner and holding them to ransom. The prosecutor’s office said the men were believed to have behaved in a “particularly degrading and cruel” manner to a group of 12 migrants, including two minors, from India, Afghanistan and Pakistan, whom they had detained for two weeks in October. On the Greek island of Lesbos, migrants clashed with police during a protest about severe overcrowding in a local camp. Also Monday, police in Cyprus said they safely escorted to the coast a boat with 87 Syrian migrants that had left the Turkish port of Mersin.