Truck carrying migrants in a ‘refrigerated container’ found on UK-bound ferry

A truck carrying 25 migrants in a “refrigerated container” has been found on a ferry travelling from the Netherlands to the UK just weeks after 39 bodies were found in a truck in the UK.

Authorities found the migrants shortly after the ferry left the Netherlands and the vessel quickly returned to the Dutch port of Vlaardingen, emergency services say.

Two of the migrants were taken to hospital for treatment while the other 23 received a medical check-up in the port before being taken away by police for processing, a statement said on Tuesday.

The migrants were aboard a Britannia Seaways ferry owned by Danish operator DFDS that had just embarked on a run across the North Sea to Felixstowe in southern England.

Sniffer dogs were being used to comb the vessel for other possible stowaways, it said.

The migrants were taken from the ferry by bus for police processing. Picture: Marco De Swart/ANP/AFP/NetherlandsSource:AFP

It comes just weeks after 39 bodies, all believed to be Vietnamese migrants, were discovered in the back of a refrigerated truck near London on October 23.

Two people, including the 25-year-old driver Maurice “Mo” Robinson, have been charged in Britain and eight in Vietnam over the deaths.

Robinson was quizzed for more than 72 hours by cops after he picked up the trailer from Purfleet, Essex. He has been charged with 39 counts of manslaughter, conspiracy to traffic humans, conspiracy to assist unlawful immigration and money laundering.

The container in which the bodies were found had arrived on a ferry from Zeebrugge in Belgium.

Some migrants are said to have died banging on the trucks walls. Many were naked or had minimal clothing.