Police arrested seven people who allegedly kept 60 immigrants locked up in two apartments in Athens while demanding that the families of the captives pay almost 2,000 euros each for the release of their loved ones, authorities said yesterday.

The suspects, including three Afghan nationals and an Iranian, kept 32 immigrants locked up in an apartment in Nikaia, near Piraeus.

They also imprisoned 28 migrants in the basement of a building in Exarchia, central Athens.

Police said the migrants were kept in “prison-like” rooms that had iron bars on the windows and security doors so they could not escape.

Most of the migrants are from Somalia, police said. They were dropped off on the island of Evia by traffickers who had sailed over with the migrants from Turkey. The suspects demanded some 1,900 euros from the family of each migrant in order to release the immigrants they were holding. They will now be held at migrant reception centers.