A man in his 40s has been arrested in connection with the discovery of six people who were found inside a shipping container at Rosslare Europort in Co Wexford yesterday morning.
The five men and a teenager, who are believed to be of Kurdish descent, were discovered after one of those inside made a distress call.
The container was on board a ship which was on its way to Rosslare. When the ship docked, it was searched and the six people were found inside one of the containers onboard.
They were taken to Wexford General Hospital where three of them are continuing to receive treatment.
Two adults have been told that they cannot stay in Ireland while the child is understood to be receiving appropriate care.
The man who was arrested is being held at a garda station in Co Wexford.
We need your consent to load this rte-player contentWe use rte-player to manage extra content that can set cookies on your device and collect data about your activity. Please review their details and accept them to load the content.Manage Preferences
People in containers has become ‘a huge issue’
President of the Irish Road Haulage Association (IRHA) Ger Hyland said security checks need to be tightened up at ferry ports in Europe.
“The biggest changes that need to be made is in the ferry ports in Europe, they need to tighten up on the security, and they need to tighten up on security checks.”
Speaking on RTÉ’s News At One, Mr Hyland said the issue of people in containers has become “a huge issue” for IRHA members but that it was important to “think of the six migrants that came across in a steel container”.
He said the container was sealed and that, in a lot of cases, they are “airtight”.
Mr Hyland said the people found in Rosslare could have spent up to a week inside the shipping container before they were discovered.
“That container could have sat in Zeebrugge for two or three days before it was shipped across to Ireland.
“It could sit on a quay in Ireland for two or three days before it’s out for delivery.
“And take a thought for our drivers who deliver these containers. When they open the back doors at the point of delivery, you don’t know what you’re going to find.
“So, it is a huge concern for our members and our drivers.”
Mr Hyland added that in most cases the migrants are put into containers by criminal gangs they have paid to get them into the UK. However, they often arrive in Ireland and “it’s a complete surprise for them”.
“The criminal gangs who are putting these people in containers, they don’t care where they go, what happens to them, so long as they get their money for helping them get to wherever they want to go,” he said.
We need your consent to load this rte-player contentWe use rte-player to manage extra content that can set cookies on your device and collect data about your activity. Please review their details and accept them to load the content.Manage Preferences
Mr Hyland said that drivers have a lengthy list of checks they must complete before setting off on a delivery, but gangs take the back doors off a container or bore a hole in the top of it.
“What we saw at times was that the criminal gangs take the back doors off the trailers and put the migrants in and re-close the back doors.
“And the driver, when he does his checks and balances, he sees absolutely nothing wrong.
“But in some cases, we’re also seeing where they bore a hole in the top of the trailer, drop in the migrants, reseal it, and the driver knows absolutely nothing until he hears the migrants banging on the side of the trailer when he gets to his destination.”
He said the penalties when drivers are found to be transporting migrants “can be enough to wipeout an operator”.
“That’s a huge cost to our industry, to our operators, because the load that’s in that trailer, the migrants can be in it for a couple or three days or longer in cases.
“The load that’s on that trailer has to be disposed of. So, you have a huge insurance claim and that insurance claim at times can reach millions of euro.”
He added that “to the best of our knowledge” no IRHA members “are involved in people smuggling”.
