Agence France-Presse. June 21, 2009 07:33am

TWO Greek sheep herders have been arrested for attaching two Bangladeshi migrant workers to their motorcycles and dragging them through the street for allegedly stealing their animals. The herders, who did not tell police about their stolen sheep, went to a migrant workers’ camp at Manolada in southern Greece about 50km from Patras on Saturday and beat up one Bangladeshi until he denounced two of his fellow countrymen.

They found the Bangladeshi men, aged 27 and 40, whom they assaulted, attached to their motorcycles and dragged about 400 metres.

Local residents called police who arrested the two Greeks for their violent attack, but also detained the Bangladeshis as suspects in the sheep theft.

Last year, Manolada on the Peloponnese peninsula was the site of strikes by migrants who come to the region as seasonal labourers, mainly picking strawberries, in protest against their harsh work conditions.

The migrant workers also go elsewhere in Greece to harvest potatoes, olives and watermelons.

Most of the migrants live in squalor in makeshift huts made from the same plastic as the greenhouses – and are forced to pay a monthly rent of up to €100 ($174) to their employers.