Ill teen discovered stuffed in suitcase

LONDON: A Vietnamese boy is critically ill in hospital in England after being found crammed in a suitcase in a new people-smuggling horror.

The boy, who is thought to be 16, was found after UK Border Force officials opened the piece of luggage in Devon on Wednesday.

The incident highlights the risks desperate refugees are willing to take to start a new life in Britain as the migrant crisis continues to engulf Europe.

The boy is understood to have been conscious when he was rescued from a car boot after a 90-minute ferry crossing from Calais. The car was stopped in a search area for vehicles arriving from France.

Paramedics were called and the teenager was taken to hospital in a potentially “life-threatening” condition, police said. .

Romanian Andrei Iancu, 20, appeared in court yesterday charged with people trafficking.

The EU’S law enforcement agency has warned migrant smuggling was a major business for criminals in Europe. Traffickers were charging asylum seekers £6 200 (R105 000) to be crammed into the space between a vehicle’s engine and bonnet in the hope of evading border guards.

Earlier this week, police warned gangs were operating a network of Vietnamese nail salons in the UK and using them to launder money from cannabis farms and prostitution. They were moving child slaves between branches to avoid detection. – Daily Mail