Driver arrested after Afghan stowaways found inside Elddis caravan

by Chris Jefferies
Border officials in France have foiled an attempt to smuggle three Afghan nationals into the UK using an Elddis Mistral GTX.
Routine checks found a man and a woman in their 50s, along with a 12-year-old boy, hiding in the toilet and wardrobe of the caravan, it has been reported.
The 34-year-old driver of the caravan’s Nissan Qashqai tow vehicle was detained by police before he could board a ferry from Dunkirk to Dover.
If found guilty of aiding immigration the Southampton resident could face up to ten years in prison and a £25,000 fine.
A Border Force official told The Daily Express that incidents of this kind are not uncommon: “Sometimes stowaways do break into caravans without the driver knowing.
“But the fact the cupboard the boy was in had been locked from the outside made this case a very suspicious one.”
Official figures show that around 9,000 attempted stowaways are intercepted every year.