10 Vietnamese caught while being smuggled from France to UK

By Minh Nga January 23, 2019 | 05:07 pm PT

Migrants attempt to board trucks heading across the Channel from France to Britain. Photo by Reuters/Pascal Rossignol

Police in France’s Cherbourg city found 10 Vietnamese nationals crammed in a van that was on its way to the U.K.

When searching the vehicle near the British border on January 16, officers noticed a wooden partition, actu.fr reported.

Behind it were 10 Vietnamese and small holes in the partition for them to breathe, a local court heard Monday.

The van’s driver, a 30-year-old Bulgarian man, was sentenced to two years in jail for illegally transporting immigrants and received a five-year ban on the Channel between France and Britain.

The driver told the court that a taxi driver in Sofia, the Bulgarian capital, asked him to drive the van from France to Manchester city in England for repairs.

He was paid 500 euros ($600) and did not know there were illegal immigrants inside, he claimed.