UK immigrants in shipping container identified as Afghan Sikhs

The immigrants rescued from a shipping container yesterday are Sikhs who are understood to be from Afghanistan, it has emerged.

The 35-strong group’s arrival at the Port of Tilbury on Saturday prompted an international investigation after one man died.

Superintendent Trevor Roe, of Essex Police, said: "The welfare and health of the people is our priority at this stage. Now they are well enough, our officers and colleagues from the border force will be speaking to them via interpreters so we can piece together what happened and how they came to be in the container.

“We now understand that they are from Afghanistan and are of the Sikh faith.

“We have had a good deal of help from partners within the local Sikh community in the Tilbury area to ensure that these poor people, who would have been through a horrific ordeal, are supported in terms of their religious and clothing needs.”

A postmortem was being conducted yesterday while the container was being forensically examined.

Police believe substances found in the container are cleaning chemicals which are not thought to pose any health risk. – (PA)