Macedonian police have arrested 15 people suspected of organizing a human trafficking network which has smuggled dozens of immigrants towards Europe, the interior minister said Wednesday.

Fifteen Macedonian citizens were suspected of `having organized illegal transfer of 64 immigrants, out of which 44 are from China, 14 from Albania and six from India,` Gordana Jankulovska told reporters.

The group was trying to traffick immigrants through Greece towards other European Union countries, the minister added.

A Greek and a Chinese suspected to be organizers of the criminal group were still at large.

Macedonian police have begun the operation against the network several months ago in cooperation with police throughout the Balkans region, Jankulovska said.

Macedonia, a tiny Balkan republic of two million which borders EU members Greece and Bulgaria as well as Albania and Serbia, has been one of the main transit countries for the illegal trafficking of drugs, humans and weapons towards the West.