November 10, 2007	Saturday	Shawwal 28, 1428

BRATISLAVA: Police have charged six Slovaks and one Indian national with trafficking more than 100 Asians including children through Slovakia, officials said Friday.

Police searched 16 houses in and around the capital Bratislava following a court order on Thursday, finding 19 Indians in one house alone, including nine children, Slovakian interior ministry spokeswoman Vladimira Hrebenakova said.

The group had been planning and coordinating the trafficking of illegal immigrants from Pakistan, India and Bangladesh through Slovakia to third countries, police said.

More than 100 Slovakian policemen were involved in Thursday’s bust, they said.

Slovakia, which should become part of the EU’s passport free Schengen zone before the end of the year, is frequently used as a transit country for migrants coming from the former Soviet Union, the Middle East and Asia.—AFP