Romanian people smugglers who hid eight Afghan migrants including three children and a baby in a secret compartment in the back of a van are jailed for a total of almost 20 years
- Pair were stopped at France-side Eurotunnel terminal and van searched
- UK Border Guards uncovered eight people packed in a boiling compartment
- Pair and three other people smugglers are today jailed for almost 20 years
Migrant smugglers hid eight people, including four young children, in a hot, cramped secret compartment in the back of a van in a failed bid to cross the UK border.
The five Romanians were all jailed at Canterbury Crown Court today after Border Force officers described the ‘unbearable’ heat inside the hidden compartment.
The hidden people were found after a Mercedes Sprinter van was stopped at UK passport control at the entrance to the Channel Tunnel in Coquelles, France, on August 17.
Border guards found eight Afghans hidden in a compartment behind luggage in this van
After the bags were removed, a ‘false wall’ inside the van, which hid the secret compartment
Photos show how the van had been converted to hide the group, who included a baby
Driver Dumitru-Daniel Cojanu told officers he was travelling to London for a couple of days with his passenger Camelia-Florina Teleaga, who said she was visiting her sister.
The pair were jailed alongside three passengers, Matei Daniel Nedelcu, Ion-Aurelian Apostol and Ionut-Catalin Vasilica.
When searching the boot of the van, officers found a partition hidden under carpet and discovered two men, two women and four children aged between 10 months and seven years old.
They were all weak and dehydrated after being cramped inside the approximately 6ft by 2ft space, which was only 3ft high.
The five smugglers were arrested and charged with assisting unlawful immigration into the UK.
The migrants, who all claimed to be from Afghanistan, were passed to French border police.
Camelia-Florina Teleaga was jailed for three years and two months. Dumitru-Daniel Cojanu got three years and nine months
Apostol, 34, of Wembley, north London, was convicted by a jury and jailed for six years. The others all pleaded guilty.
Cojanu, 24, who also lived in Wembley, was handed a sentence of three years and nine months.
Nedelcu, 25, living in Cardiff, was jailed for three years and four months, while Vasilica, 25, and Teleaga, 30, both of no fixed address, were each handed custodial sentences of three years and two months.
Border Force director Paul Morgan said: ‘The hide was crudely constructed, with many jagged edges, and the officers who conducted the search described the heat inside such a tiny space as almost unbearable.
‘Clearly, the safety of the eight people hidden inside was of little concern to the smugglers.’
Pictures from the investigation show border officials studying the van’s secret compartment