14/01/2010 - Immigrants hide among dog biscuits
During a morning inspection in Calais, UK Border Agency officers caught five illegal immigrants hiding in a vehicle carrying dog biscuits.
The Afghan men were discovered on December 30, 2009, after an elevated carbon dioxide detector reading and an indication by a body detection dog.
Four of them were on top of the load, while the fifth one was hiding underneath pallets of dog biscuits in the lorry, which was on its way from Hungary to Melton Mowbray.
Later, the five men were handed over to the French authorities after being fingerprinted and photographed, while the vehicle was allowed to continue its journey to the UK.
According to the border control body, the haulage company had been issued with a letter warning that it could face a fine of up to £2,000 per illegal.
Tom Dowdall, director of border force European operations at the UK Border Agency said: "Since January 2009 we have stopped over 27,900 individual attempts to cross the channel illegally and searched over 920,000 freight vehicles."
Copyright © Press Association 2010
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