15 Vietnamese kids, six adults detained in the UK for illegal entry

The group of people were detained last Thursday after police found them inside a refrigerated container on a truck driven by a Romanian man, The Independent reported.

Border security officers at the Newhaven Port in Sussex District arrested the driver, 29-year-old Andrut Mihai Duma, while searching vehicles arriving in the U.K. from France.

He has been remanded to custody and will stand in court on November 26, where he will be charged with "assisting unlawful entry into the U.K.," the report quoted British police as saying.

The 15 Vietnamese children looked "cold" but "unharmed," and are receiving good care, The Independent said.

It also said that an 18-year-old man and a 27-year-old woman have been deported to Vietnam, and the remaining four adults are being held at a detention center. No further details were given.

Vietnam consistently ranks as one of the top three source countries for potential victims of modern slavery in the U.K., according to the nation’s first Independent Anti-Slavery Commissioner Kevin Hyland.

Victims trafficked from Vietnam most commonly end up being exploited, often in cannabis cultivation and nail bars, but many are also sexually exploited, according to a report commissioned by Hyland.

Last July, a court in England sentenced a Romanian man to 18 months in jail for attempting to smuggle a Vietnamese teenager into the U.K., Sky News reported. It cited a Europol source as warning that migrant smuggling has become a fruitful business for criminals across Europe and that it showed no signs of abating.