A driver smuggled seven Vietnamese people aboard a ferry to Newhaven crammed into a tiny hidden section of a van, a court was told.
The sealed unit was less than two metres high, and two metres by 37cm wide, leaving them “starved of oxygen” during the crossing from Dieppe to Newhaven.
When a crew member heard banging and desperate cried for help, he alerted the captain of the Seven Sisters ferry.
The driver of the Ford Iveco van, Anas Al Mustafa, 43, did not respond to a ship’s tannoy and crew members had to use an axe to rescue the trapped migrants.
Two were unconscious and they were all taken to hospital, a jury was told at Lewes Crown Court today (Tuesday 20 August).
Nick Corsellis, prosecuting, said: “The captain was notified by a crew member who happened to be patrolling in the garage among the lorries and cars that crew member had heard banging and screaming coming from a refrigerated van parked on deck there.
“The crew reacted with admirable speed and climbed on to the cab where they discovered that what purported to be a refrigerated unit was in fact a dummy unit – hollowed out – and it hid the entrance to a compartment that was very thin but housed seven human beings.
“The reason the migrants were calling for help was because they were being starved of oxygen and suffering from dehydration.
“When they were rescued, a number of them were in such a state that they needed emergency medical attention.
“When the ship’s captain attended the van, he organised for a call to be made over the ship’s tannoy for the driver to make himself known to the crew.
“There was no response. The captain ordered that the passenger manifest be obtained to show who and where the driver was in the ship.
“The driver’s cabin was located and it was Mr Al Mustafa’s.
“In the meantime, the captain and crew took emergency steps to assist those concealed.
“The rear doors to the van were, surprisingly, unlocked and there was nothing in the rear of the van.
“But, clearly from the noise, there was a false partition that housed people. There was no obvious point of access from inside the compartment. The crew checked underneath to see if there was a trap door but there wasn’t.
“Bearing in mind the obvious emergency from the distress of the migrants, that the driver had not responded to emergency calls, there being no door or means of escape, the crew of the ferry resorted to using an axe to break down the partition at the end of the refrigeration unit and they were able to free the seven people inside.
