Grinning migrants give UK thumbs-up
THIS is the moment a delighted migrant gives a thumbs-up after being caught entering Britain illegally.
He was one of eight men found hidden inside a refrigerated lorry that had made the Channel crossing from France.
The brazen and bearded gang were all smiles after realising their dream of reaching the UK.
Police found five Afghanistanis, two Iraqis and an Iranian bundled in the back of a Spanish lorry in Whitfield, near Dover, Kent, on Thursday.
It is not clear whether any of the men has claimed asylum but should they do so they would be entitled to a raft of taxpayerfunded benefits while their applications are processed.
Dover MP Charlie Elphicke said: “This underlines yet again we need to invest in stronger borders here at the Dover frontline.
“We cannot have a situation where migrants can break into Britain through Dover.
“These people were caught but how many are smuggled through by traffickers undetected? This is why we must crackdown on people traffickers and their evil trade of modern slavery.”
It is likely the men slipped into the UK through Calais which continues to be a migrant hotspot despite British taxpayers forking out £360million to tackle illegal trafficking since 2010.
There are now thought to be close to 1,000 refugees living rough along the northern French coast waiting for a chance to stowaway on UK-bound lorries.
In just eight years more than £850,000 of British cash has been spent every week installing high-security fencing around the besieged ferry port and Eurotunnel terminals, including a £2million barricade to stop migrants hijacking lorries using the N216 motorway.
This week Theresa May gifted French president Emmanuel Macron a further £44.5million to beef up security at UK border controls on the Continent.
It will fund “security fencing, CCTV and detection technology in Calais and other ports” and stop the formation of another Jungle refugee camp, which was home to 10,000 migrants desperate to reach the UK.
The latest border security blunder comes almost exactly a year after the Daily Express told how a migrant family of Iraqi Kurds paid £18,000 to traffickers before succeeding in crossing the Channel.
Father Hawkar Salah, 29, his wife and two young children finally made it to Dover in the back of a lorry hidden among a cargo of Oreo chocolate biscuits. Smiling illegal immigrants after police stopped a Spanish lorry in Kent. Right, another migrant celebrates reaching Britain He refused to claim asylum in France, saying he would rather risk the lives of his family trying to reach Britain. Once here they immediately claimed asylum and were taken to refugee accommodation in Cardiff.
An investigation revealed a migrant was caught attempting to sneak into Britain every 10 minutes in 2016.
The Home Office said: “Where someone has no right to remain in the UK we will take action to remove them.”