Lorry drivers horrified by the news that 39 people were found dead in a refrigerated container have said checks on people smuggling at UK ports are often inadequate and that such an incident had been “a matter of time”.
As a murder investigation got under way on Wednesday, hauliers in Holyhead, where the arrested driver Mo Robinson was reported to have arrived in the UK before picking up the trailer in Essex, said border control efforts were often cursory.
Rafael Bolewski, from Poland, who was taking a rest at a truck stop near the town, said the tragedy gave the industry “a bad name”. “Yes, we were very shocked,” he said. “These deaths are sad. It is a disgrace.”
While Robinson is believed to have arrived in the UK via Holyhead, one of Britain’s busiest ferry ports, it is understood that he picked up the trailer in Essex shortly before emergency services were called. Police are investigating the possibility that organised crime gangs were responsible.
Bolewski and another truck driver, who wanted to remain anonymous, said security checks at British ports were infrequent. Bolewski, who also uses the port of Fishguard in Pembrokeshire, said that in his 17-year career he had only ever been stopped twice by border control for a “proper” check.
He said: “If you are an eastern European driver then you get checked more, but normally they don’t check. They just look if the seal on the back is broken, check your documents and then let you through the checkpoint. With Irish ferries they just ask the driver what is in the back and then you go through. Nothing more. Sometimes immigrants could be locked inside but they would not know.”
Bolewski and other drivers also told of regular hazards they faced with refugees and migrants trying to climb into their vehicles. Bolewski said he found a man clinging to the axle on his vehicle last Saturday in the port of Calais.
“Just before the ticket gate I checked my trailer and I found this man, an immigrant, on the first axle on my trailer. I had to get security and they came and took him away,” he said.
Hugh Williams, 67, and his wife, Marcia, 58, who run the Edinburgh Castle pub opposite the ferry port in Holyhead, said many lorry drivers spoke of discovering people in their trucks.
“The wagon drivers say when they get to the borders in France the problems start. Illegal immigrants get in to their vehicles and sometimes the authorities try to arrest the drivers, but it has nothing to do with them. It’s not their fault,” said Marcia.
“But this seems like something different,” said Hugh. “These that have died have obviously been desperate and have been trying to escape, and have ended up in the back of a wagon asphyxiating. Desperate people trying to escape desperate circumstances and someone has made money out of this misery. It is disgusting.”
Richard Burnett, the chief executive of the Road Haulage Association, said trucks using the Calais-Dover were subjected to a triple check for stowaways involving sniffer dogs, heartbeat scanners and carbon dioxide monitors.
“The National Crime Agency have been warning that traffickers are getting more sophisticated and ruthless all the time,” he said. “We’ve had traffickers climb on top of trucks and unbolt the entire door to let people in and then re-attach it, and it looks like the seal on the door hasn’t been tampered with.”
