Two Afghan stowaways are found unconscious in ferry fridge

Two Afghan stowaways had to be airlifted from a passenger ferry off the British coast when they were found unconscious in a fridge where they had been hiding for 13 hours.

A coastguard helicopter was scrambled to the ship which raised the alarm around 20 miles off the coast of Devon.

The two men were found inside the fridge on board the car ferry Epsilon, operated by Irish Ferries, which was sailing from Cherbourg in France to Dublin, Ireland.

The distress call was sent from the ship off Start Point at 7.30pm on Sunday.

The men were flown to hospital in Devon where they later recovered and were arrested before being handed over to the UK Border Force.

Devon and Cornwall Police said: ‘They have been seen by medical staff and their condition is not as serious as originally thought and have made a full recovery.’

The incident has prompted a warning from ferry companies that numbers of migrants trying to sneak into Britain on their vessels has soared this year.

Migrants blocked from gathering near Calais are now trying to flee Europe from other ports in Northern France and Spain.

Already this year 1,251 illegal immigrants have been caught trying to board a ferry to the UK in Bilbao – three times the number for the whole of 2016.

There have been more than 100 detentions already this month.

A group of 40 children who have arrived in Portsmouth without adult supervision are currently being cared for by Portsmouth City Council.

Brittany Ferries said: ‘Those who repeatedly target port facilities [in Santander] are sent to a detention centre near Madrid before being deported.

‘In Bilbao, a port infraction is treated as a civil misdemeanour and offenders are simply released to try again.’