Fishing port lockdown as 30 migrants f lee harbour
A FISHING port was on lockdown yesterday after dozens of Vietnamese migrants landed at the harbour.
Police descended on Newlyn in Cornwall just after 7am when locals reported seeing a large group getting into the back of a van from a boat.
The van, carrying around 30 Vietnamese nationals, was eventually stopped more than 120 miles away on the M5.
Four men were arrested on suspicion of modern slavery offences at Cullompton services, north of Exeter.
The arrests come amid a surge in the number of migrants trying to get to Britain on the sea – after beefed-up security in Calais made it near-impossible for them to try to sneak on to UK-bound vans and lorries at the French port.
A total of 294 migrants have reached UK shores since November. However, most attempt a short sea crossing to Kent, so
‘Stopped all fishing boats going out’
yesterday’s landing at Newlyn Harbour – more than 100 miles from the French coast – shows a new level of desperation.
Witnesses who saw the group come ashore in Newlyn claimed another dinghy was seen with half a dozen aboard.
Clive Oxley said: ‘There were 32 of them who ran aboard by the jetty, clambered over the fences and ran off. The police stopped all fishing boats going out to sea. They shut the whole of the front of the harbour. Everyone here is really shocked.’
The small port near Penzance was crawling with police as the investigation unfolded. The operation appeared to centre on a yacht called the Johan Sebastian.
A spokesman for Devon and Cornwall Police said: ‘Four men have been arrested on suspicion of offences under the Modern Day Slavery Act. Three have been taken into police custody. One has been taken to hospital and remains under police guard.’