An English couple visiting the French city of Calais were surprised after finding two migrants had snuck into the rooftop cargo box of their car in an attempt to sneak into Britain.
The couple says they first became suspicious while driving along a French motorway and heard noises from the roof of their vehicle. They pulled over at a rest area and opened the roof box, finding two teenage migrants in the cargo container.
The two migrants, both supposedly aged 16 and from Eritrea and Guinea, ran as soon as they had been discovered, but were later captured by French Gendarmes after the English couple notified them of the incident, France Bleu reports.
According to the couple, they had come to Calais just for one night before heading to another part of France and think the migrants may have snuck into the car’s cargo box while their vehicle was parked at a hotel in the city.
The two migrants are said to have thought the couple were returning to the United Kingdom. The Dieppe prosecutor’s office ordered the migrants be placed in social assistance, but the Social Aid for Children (ASE) rejected them, and they were released from custody.
The city of Calais has been a migrant hotspot for years due to its proximity to Britain. It has seen a surge of new activity in recent weeks.
Last month, reports claimed that an Albanian mafia group had taken over a new migrant camp in the city which is being compared to the old “Jungle” makeshift camp that had been dismantled in 2016.
According to migrants in the area, the Albanians facilitate illegal migration into the UK by selling the boats and kayaks to cross the English Channel, with some vessels costing up to £5,000.
Mass migration into the UK across the Channel has significantly increased in recent weeks, with over 3,000 migrants reaching the country so far this year, compared to 1,890 for the entirety of 2019.
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