Home Office (National)
HOME OFFICE 381/97
Sixteen illegal immigrants were found alive and well in a frozen food lorry arriving in the Port of Dover this morning.
They were discovered by HM Customs and Excise officers during a random search of the vehicle which had just arrived from France loaded with frozen chips.
Mike O'Brien, Home Office Immigration minister, said today:
"These people could easily have met an icy death. They are extremely lucky to be alive thanks to the vigilance of Customs officers.
"This demonstrates yet again the extraordinary and dangerous measures that some people are prepared to take. It shows the appalling lengths that the organisers of this traffic in human desperation are willing to go to in order to make their disreputable living.
"The international organisers of this trade must be stopped. The Government is taking a hard line on illegal immigration. That is why the Immigration Service and the National Criminal Intelligence Service are now working very closely together to uphold our immigration laws. In doing so they are also helping to protect those misguided people who think that by paying their life savings to crime barons they can slip undetected into Britain."
All 16 were men and were wedged into a gap of 18 to 24 inches between the ceiling of the refrigerated compartment and the stacks of boxes of frozen chips.
They were all detained and are now being interviewed by immigration officers. The British lorry driver has been interviewed by police officers on suspicion of facilitation.
Fifteen are Sri Lankan nationals and one is a Bangladeshi.
