Human trafficking investigation after migrants found in container at Rosslare Harbour

Migrants rescued from a container at Rosslare Europort on Monday morning had to cut a hole in the side of the container as they were struggling to breathe, a Wexford councillor and first responder has said.

Gardaí have begun a human trafficking investigation after 14 migrants, including 12 adults and two children, were discovered hidden in a refrigerated trailer on board a lorry arriving at Rosslare Europort from France.

They were uncovered after one of those inside rang the UK police to inform them of their location.

Speaking on RTÉ radio’s Morning Ireland, Wexford Independent councillor Ger Carthy said the people in the container were assessed and cared for at the scene and then transferred to a processing centre in Dublin where translation services were provided, he said.

Cllr Carthy said it had been “quite a challenging and very dangerous trip for anyone to make” and it was very fortunate that there had not been an outcome similar to a previous occasion when a number of people died in a container that arrived in Rosslare.

A disaster had been averted on Monday morning, but it highlighted the desperation of people coming from “possibly war-torn countries, trying to get to a better way of life”, that they would board a ship in a container.

Cllr Carthy added the 14 people had thought they were going to the UK.

They had been in the refrigerated roll-on-roll-off container for 28 hours when the 999 call was made. The journey is 30 hours, and this gave emergency services time to get in place for their arrival, he explained.

A Garda source confirmed those on board the trailer were primarily Kurdish nationals, and, following medical examinations, were brought to the nearest processing centre.

[ Two children and 12 adult migrants discovered on lorry at Rosslare Harbour ]

“There’s very little involvement locally,” the source said. “We just bring them on to the nearest processing centre, which I believe is Citywest in Dublin. From there, the initial processing of their details and documents will be carried out before they are taken to an accommodation centre, and a decision will be made around whether they apply for political asylum.”

Minister for Transport Eamon Ryan said there is “relief” that there were no fatalities.

“We have to do everything we can to try and avoid such carriage and passage because it is dangerous and a risk to the lives of those who are put on or go on to those trucks,” Mr Ryan said.

“We have to do what we can to reduce it but you cannot completely eliminate it. We’ve seen that with the UK Government and France, trying to stop that passage.

“It is practically impossible to completely avoid it.”

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said the first response is a humanitarian effort to check they are in good health, which they are believed to be. They are then entitled to choose to undertake a voluntary return or apply for asylum, he said.

The Minister for Justice, Helen McEntee, said she was “extremely concerned” by the incident.

“We know from past experience that similar situations have led to tragic fatalities. This was an extremely hazardous undertaking and it is only fortuitous that the same did not happen yesterday,” she said, appealing for anyone with information to contact An Garda Síochána.

Speaking on Morning Ireland, the president of the Irish Road Haulage Association said the people involved would have required assistance to get into it by someone who knew how to manipulate the locks and seals.

Eugene Drennan said it had been “a stroke of luck” there were no fatalities.

The truck was loaded south of Paris, and the driver then took a mandatory break at a service area north of Paris, after which he conducted his checks, Mr Drennan said.

“So these people were put on board by a very professional gang that had to help because the truck is fully sealed. It’s a solid site, a trailer. It was a refrigerated trailer. So access is through the back doors or through the roof.”

Mr Drennan said the people may have thought the truck was going the shorter route from Calais to Dover but in fact it was going to Zeebrugge and from there directly to Rosslare.

When asked who had responsibility in this situation, Mr Drennan said that such gangs were visible and that the French authorities “could do more”, but he added it was difficult to point fingers.

It was difficult for drivers, Mr Drennan said, adding in this case the driver had conducted the necessary protocols and checks. Even in ports where there was specialised equipment people were still able to get through, sometimes in compartments or in the chassis, Mr Drennan said.

The incident is not the first in Co Wexford in which migrants were found after spending long periods in heavy goods vehicles over the years.

In 2001, while stopped in Rosslare, a lorry driver transporting what was supposed to be a load of furniture from Milan noticed the customs seal on his load was broken. Gardaí were called, and discovered 13 people who had been in the container for more than five days.

Eight of them, including four children, had suffocated. The migrants had paid traffickers up to €15,000 to be transported west.

A trial of the people smugglers at the centre of the 2001 incident heard the group made up to €12 million a year from human trafficking. Two ringleaders were convicted in a Belgian court in 2003, but fled.

One was apprehended in 2012, but the court annulled the conviction. Some of the survivors of the tragedy settled in Dublin and Wexford.

More recently, in 2019, 16 migrants were found on the back of a lorry on a ferry sailing from France to Co Wexford. The men, between the ages of about 20 and 35 years, were believed to be from Iraq and Iran.

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