By IANS
London : Three Indian nationals who went without food and water for four days as they entered Britain in a delivery lorry from Belgium have been arrested and handed over to immigration services.
Staff at a timber yard near the Bristol international airport were shocked when they found the three people hiding in the back of the lorry. They spoke poorEnglish but managed to convey that that they had been in the lorry for four days without food or drink.
They said they did not know they were in England.
The managing director of the timber yard, Richard Goldstone, told the local media: “The lorry had come over from Belgium on the ferry with a load of timber. When the driver, who was also Belgian, opened the lorry with one of our forklift drivers there were three men inside.
“They said they were from India and their first question was ‘What country are we in?’
“They also said they had been in the lorry for four days, so the first thing we did was give them some food and water. The driver had not known about it – he was absolutely dumfounded.
“We all felt incredibly sorry for them because they had spent four days in the heat without knowing where they were going. We rang the police, who turned up incredibly quickly, and they alerted immigration at Bristol Airport. The men made no attempt to run away.”
Kevin Dowling, an assistant at the timber yard who discovered the three, said: “It was the first time this has ever happened so everyone was quite surprised.”
Police spokesman Wayne Baker said: “We had reports that a delivery from Eastern Europe was being made to a company in Brockley Coombe Road. Three men believed to be illegal immigrants were arrested and taken to Weston-super-Mare police station and will be handed over to the immigration services.”