Eight refugees found in lorry seek asylum

Eight Romanians found in a container lorry outside Kildare town yesterday morning were in B & B accommodation in Dublin last night after applying for political asylum.

Seven men and a woman were found on boxes in the 40-foot container by the driver of the lorry who pulled over on the Naas dual-carriageway when he heard a banging sound and voices.

The driver, who did not want to be interviewed, had left the French port of Cherbourg at 4 a.m. on Sunday after driving from Spain with ceramics and shoes.

He crossed to the British port of Poole and drove to Holyhead, Wales, for the crossing to Ireland, arriving in Dublin Port at around 7 a.m. yesterday, according to gardai.

When the driver found the stowaways at around 8 a.m., he drove to Kildare Garda station. There they were transferred to Naas, Co Kildare, for questioning by immigration officials.

The Romanians are believed to have been in the container for at least 26 hours, after being smuggled into it at Cherbourg. A Garda source said it appeared that someone had closed the door behind them and a slit had been cut in the curtain siding so they could look out. Gardai are satisfied that the lorry driver had no idea they were in the container.

The men and woman, all in their 20s and early 30s, appeared to be in good health, wearing jeans, jackets and jumpers and carrying small knapsacks. Only one of the men spoke broken English, gardai said, and they were transferred to Store Street Garda station, Dublin, yesterday afternoon where a translator was available.

One of the men told gardai that he had paid 11 years of savings to be smuggled into Ireland, a sum of some hundreds of pounds.

None of the eight would identify the nationalities of those they said had organised their passage to Ireland. Only one of the group was carrying any Irish currency, a £20 note, gardai said.

"They gave over everything and some of them sold their passports," said Supt Tom Neville, at Naas Garda station. "They came with just a few bits and pieces." The group had eaten tins of tuna which they found in the lorry and did not appear to have any water with them.

The discovery of the stowaways brings to 36 the number of Romanians smuggled into Ireland in container lorries arriving from Cherbourg in the last three weeks. French police have denied there are any criminals running the trafficking operation in France and say the traffickers may be based on the German and Italian borders in France.

The frontier police have arrested more than 300 Romanians in Cherbourg since January, more than the total arrested in the port last year. Port officials are to increase security at the container compound this summer, introducing a monitoring device for checking lorries as they are loaded on to ferries, according to police.

According to the EU police agency Europol, at least two Romanian gangs in Germany and the Netherlands are involved in smuggling Romanians across Europe into Ireland. The Russian mafia is also involved in the trade, the deputy head of Europol, Dr Willy Bruggeman, said last week.

The Minister for Justice, Mr O'Donoghue, told the European Council of Justice and Home Affairs Ministers last week that he would make the trafficking of immigrants a crime. Details of the proposals are expected to be announced this week. Measures to criminalise the trade were included in the Refugee Act, which has not yet been implemented by the Government.