Police in northern Greece have arrested two Pakistani suspected migrant traffickers accused of holding more than a dozen migrants captive and demanding ransoms from their relatives back home.

Ten men — six Pakistanis, three Bangladeshis and an Afghan — were freed during a police raid Monday on a shed in the countryside west of Thessaloniki where a gang was holding them captive.

Earlier, three other Pakistanis had managed to escape from the shed and contact police.

Two men from Pakistan, aged 62 and 17, were charged with blackmailing and illegally detaining the migrants, who had paid smugglers to get them into Greece from Turkey.

Police said Tuesday that the gang claimed the men in captivity owed smugglers between 1,000 and 2,500 euros, and would be held until their families paid up.