X-ray images show migrants stowed away in a fuel tanker at a Greek port, as anger simmers among the truck drivers forced to chase away hundreds of people trying to reach Italy

  • Trying to reach Italy via ferry from Greece has become more popular
  • Migrants try to sneak onto trucks in the Greek port of Patras
  • It's become more appealing since closure of Balkan route to north Europe
  • In January and February, 760 found in trucks or with fake documents at Patras

X-ray images released by Greek authorities show desperate migrants hiding in fuel tanks and among fruit deliveries on lorries ready to board the ferry from the port of Patras to Italy.

Other photos taken in Patras show the constant battle of the Greek port police to uphold the law and catch the stowaways before the trucks and lorries drive onto the ferries.

But they also show the squalid conditions the migrants, mostly young men from Pakistan and Afghanistan, live in as they wait for their literal ship to come in. 

Scroll down for video 

Systematic: This x-ray photo provided by the Hellenic Coast Guard shows two migrants hiding inside a truck at the port of Patras, Greece

Systematic: This x-ray photo provided by the Hellenic Coast Guard shows two migrants hiding inside a truck at the port of Patras, Greece

Caught: A young man looks out from under a truck after being caught trying to smuggle himself onto a ferry to Italy from Patras in Greece

Caught: A young man looks out from under a truck after being caught trying to smuggle himself onto a ferry to Italy from Patras in Greece

Off you come: A number of migrants are found on the back of a truck and are detained by Coast Guard officers

Off you come: A number of migrants are found on the back of a truck and are detained by Coast Guard officers

Images from an X-ray of a truck show hideouts not visible to the naked eye: two men were discovered lying on their backs in a fuel tank. Another crouched beneath watermelons.

Anger is simmering among truck drivers, who sometimes chase migrants away with sticks, fearing arrest if a stowaway is found among their freight.

One driver, who gave his name as Harry, climbed into his truck to find three migrants hiding among stacks of aluminum last Thursday night.

'It's awful. It doesn't get more awful than this and no one takes responsibility,' he said. 

Way in: Migrants climb through a metal fence to enter the departures pier of the port of Patras, where they hope to be able to hide on lorries waiting to drive onto the ferry

Way in: Migrants climb through a metal fence to enter the departures pier of the port of Patras, where they hope to be able to hide on lorries waiting to drive onto the ferry

Found: A migrant looks out from under a truck police officers wait to detain him in Patras (March 2018)

Found: A migrant looks out from under a truck police officers wait to detain him in Patras 

Good effort: A man looks around before trying to hide under the chassis of a lorry - it is not known if he succeeded (March 2018)

Good effort: A man looks around before trying to hide under the chassis of a lorry - it is not known if he succeeded

Migrants climb a metal fence to exit the Greek port of Patras, from where they try to smuggle themselves onto ferries to Italy, after being chased by the Coast Guard and police officers, in Patras, Greece, March 8, 2018

Neverending: Anger is simmering among truck drivers, who sometimes chase migrants away with sticks, fearing arrest if a stowaway is found among their freight

When the migrants are caught by police, they simply return to the other side of the fence surrounding the port, and prepare to try again - determined to reach Italy, and from there, make their way to northern Europe more appealing since the closure in 2016 of the overland Balkan route .

A few hundred migrants are squatting in abandoned factories facing the port and shower in water that run yellow from rusty pipes.

At night, with fewer officers on patrol, a Reuters team witnessed groups breaking into locks to get into trucks or crawling under tarpaulins.

'Get down! Get down from there!' an officer with the coast guard's special forces squad yelled at a man peering at him from the undercarriage of a truck lined up for embarkation control, who was then handcuffed and escorted away.  

Escape: A migrant runs away from a truck after spotting a Coast Guard officer approaching

Escape: A migrant runs away from a truck after spotting a Coast Guard officer approaching

Systematic: A man climbs into a truck as another waits to follow him at the port in Patras

Systematic: A man climbs into a truck as another waits to follow him at the port in Patras

Hiding: A handout picture of an x-ray provided by the Hellenic Coast Guard shows two migrants hiding among goods inside a truck, at the port of Patras

Hiding: A handout picture of an x-ray provided by the Hellenic Coast Guard shows two migrants hiding among goods inside a truck, at the port of Patras

One of the migrants speaks with a port police officer, as others climb a metal fence at the port

One of the migrants speaks with a port police officer, as others climb a metal fence at the port

Desperate: Many migrants who are detained are only held overnight, and the next day when they are released, they try it again

Desperate: Many migrants who are detained are only held overnight, and the next day when they are released, they try it again

Authorities arrested 760 people hiding in trucks or carrying forged travel documents at Patras in January and February alone.

This is nearly a third of the total of 2,627 arrests in 2017, according to official data. 

In 2016, 1,040 people were arrested.

Those arrested are held at most overnight before they are released, and many try their luck again the following day. 

The route from Patras, one of two ports linking Greece to Italy, is not new but when Europe's refugee crisis began in 2015 and nearly a million people landed in Greece on boats, taking the overland road to countries like Germany was a safer option. 

Increasing: Authorities arrested 760 people hiding in trucks or carrying forged travel documents at Patras in January and February alone

Increasing: Authorities arrested 760 people hiding in trucks or carrying forged travel documents at Patras in January and February alone

Squatting: Men and boys are seen inside a self-made temporary shelter in a disused factory, near the port of Patras

Squatting: Men and boys are seen inside a self-made temporary shelter in a disused factory, near the port of Patras

No choice: A man showers under a broken pipe inside a disused factory next to the port, where many have taken to squatting while they wait for another opportunity to sneak onto a ferry

No choice: A man showers under a broken pipe inside a disused factory next to the port, where many have taken to squatting while they wait for another opportunity to sneak onto a ferry

Migrants climb through through a metal fence to exit the departures pier of the port of Patras, from where they try to smuggle themselves onto ferries to Italy, as they are chased by the Coast Guard and police officers, in Patras, Greece (08 March 2018)

Migrants climb through through a metal fence to exit the departures pier of the port of Patras, from where they try to smuggle themselves onto ferries to Italy, as they are chased by the Coast Guard and police officers, in Patras, Greece

Getting to the other side: A majority of the migrants waiting to sneak into the ferries at Patras are young men and boys from Afghanistan and Pakistan

Getting to the other side: A majority of the migrants waiting to sneak into the ferries are young men and boys from Afghanistan and Pakistan

When those borders closed in March 2016 and a European Union deal with Turkey stranded over 50,000 refugees and migrants in Greece, Patras started buzzing again, said Dimitris Kyriakoulopoulos, a coast guard captain overlooking the port.

'What we're dealing with here is a gradual increase in the number of these people,' he said. 

No one can say how many migrants make it across. Italian authorities returned 147 people to Greece last year, up from 112 in 2016 and 44 in January and February, according to Greek data.

Italy's Interior Ministry did not respond to a request for comment.

Across the port in the squat, migrants spoke of their friends who made it to Italy and said they, too, would keep at it despite the risks.

'Everything is dangerous,' said Arshad Wardak, 24, from Afghanistan. 'You have to go through all the suffering to get into a better place. So this is why everybody is trying.'