An officer of the Royal Netherlands Marechaussee with a sniffer dog carrying out an inspection at the port of Hoek van Holland, the Netherlands. (Royal Netherlands Marechaussee/Facebook photo)
HOEK VAN HOLLAND--Authorities in the Netherlands say they found a group of nineteen Albanian people hidden inside a truck at the port of Hoek van Holland. The seventeen men and two women were in a vehicle that was going to travel to England by ferry.
The 47-year-old Romanian driver of the truck, which had Romanian licence plates, was taken into custody on Friday evening by the Royal Netherlands Marechaussee. The driver was being held on suspicion of people-smuggling.
All 19 of the people found in the truck were hidden in the truck’s trailer area. They range in age from 19 to 43 years.
The Marechaussee said four others were found in an unrelated case at the Europoort port district of Rotterdam.
Two citizens of Chad, one Libyan, and one Sudanese were found without identity papers. They were hiding in the rear trailer of an agricultural vehicle.
The Dutch authorities have started the process to return all 23 persons who were found on Friday to their countries of origin.
