Police in Montenegro say they have picked up 17 migrants, including 11 Syrians, from an Italian fishing boat that sent a distress signal off the Montenegrin coast.

The police ship's crew said Tuesday they picked up the migrants from a small inflatable boat floating in the Adriatic sea. Police say two Moroccans, two people from Yemen, one from Afghanistan and one from Pakistan were also on the boat. The group included four children.

It was not immediately clear where the migrants started their journey.

Montenegro has been largely spared from the migrant flow across the Balkans that peaked in 2016, with people fleeing wars and poverty in the Middle East, Africa and Asia trying to reach the Western Europe.