Illegal immigration ring broken up

Italian police say they've conducted a successful operation with their French counterparts to break up a major illegal immigration ring.

They say they've arrested seventeen people - including Turks, Algerians, Frenchmen, an Iranian and an Italian - all of them suspected of smuggling Kurds into Western Europe.

French radio reported that the group had been smuggling two-thousand immigrants a month.

Correspondents say Kurds are smuggled from Turkey, Iraq and Iran through Italian seaports, from where they travel to the French border by train.

From there they make their way to France, Britain or Germany.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service