Syrian migrants stow away in lorry to reach UK – not realising it's heading to SPAIN
A GANG of migrants hid in a lorry in a desperate bid to reach Britain, not realising they were heading to Spain.
Syrian migrants stow away in lorry to reach UK - not realising it's heading to Spain
The 12 Syrians had fled a refugee centre in northern Paris and spotted the lorry as their chance to reach Britain.
The clambered into the back of a Romanian-registered truck which was parked at a rest stop, and were ecstatic when they were “convinced” they were just hours away from reaching their dream destination of Britain.
But when one man soon realised they had made a terrible mistake he panicked, they panicked and text a fellow migrant for help, who raised the alarm with police.
The 12 Syrians had fled a refugee centre in norther Paris
They called for help after one of them realised that they were headed in the wrong direction
Officers tracked down the lorry using the migrant’s phone number and the 12 men, aged between 18 to 36, were arrested in Corbeil-Essonnes, 25 miles south of Paris.
One of the migrants managed to slip away from police and he is still on the run.
The unsuspecting driver, a 60-year-old Romanian national, had stopped at the rest area for food and has “no idea” how or when the migrants broke into his lorry, police said.
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Migrants had been helped by a people smuggler who had “tampered” with the van, police discovered.
A local police officer told the French daily Le Parisien: “They called for help after one of them realised that they were headed in the wrong direction.
“They told us that they had run away from a migrant reception centre in Nogent-sur-Oise, a suburb north of Paris, in a bid to reach the UK.”
The 11 remaining migrants were sent to a local emergency shelter and are in “good health”, police said.