‘Unconscious migrants’ discovered in van on ferry

HORRIFIED tourists told last night how unconscious migrants were pulled from the back of a van driven on to a ferry by suspected people traffickers.

Seven migrants were freed after the ferry’s security staff broke down a false wall in the vehicle that had been concealing them.

Workers on The Seven Sisters heard banging coming from the van at around 9.40am yesterday as they were preparing to dock at Newhaven in Sussex after crossing the Channel from Dieppe. Footage showed police cars, ambulances and a helicopter at the scene, with people on stretchers being given critical care. It is understood there were no deaths.

Two men have been arrested. One witness said: ‘The migrants appeared to have been lying down in a small section of the van. They were hidden by a false wall that had been built into the back of the van. It was only a small space so they must have been practically lying on top of each other.

‘It would have been very cramped and hard to breathe. The driver of the van and another man who I think was in the passenger seat were arrested and taken away.’

A Sussex Police spokesman said: ‘A man has been arrested on suspicion of facilitating illegal entry to the UK, and a second man has been arrested for illegally entering the UK.’ The drive- on ferry makes fourhour trips between Newhaven and Dieppe daily. The Home Office confirmed Border Force had become involved.

Caolan Gormley, 26, of Co Tyrone, was jailed for seven years in November for his role in a people-smuggling ring that led to the deaths of 39 Vietnamese migrants.

Meanwhile Russian lorry driver Nikolai Kuznetsov, 39, was found by Border Force officers to be carrying 22 migrants in his trailer, and was sentenced to four years and four months’ imprisonment.