UK-Calais: Baby migrant found in lorry with Iraqi refugees

A twenty-day old baby and nine other Iraqi migrants were found in the back of a lorry in Britain on Thursday, after the group were smuggled into the country from the Calais ‘Jungle’ refugee camp.

The group of ten migrants travelled some 2,500 miles in the overcrowded vehicle before being stopped by authorities in Watford, around 20 miles from the English capital.

"We heard banging and shouting from the lorry. The driver was standing looking confused. We could hear a male voice shouting to be let out. He was saying, 'no air' in a foreign accent and sounded desperate — but the driver made it clear he was not opening the cab without the police present," Richard Glover from Wellingborough, who called the police, said, according to local reports.

"I got on the mobile and two cars arrived after 20 minutes," he addded. 

"I could see no food or water in the lorry. It had been a muggy night and it was a warm day, so conditions would have been stifling. They could all have suffocated in there – including the baby."

The news comes as British authorities took steps to increase security measures along its border with France, with officials confirming the construction of a £2 million ($2.66 million) structure designed to stop migrants from jumping into trucks and slipping into the country.

The four-metres (13-foot) high, one-kilometre long structure – dubbed ‘The Great Wall of Calais’  is expected to be built on a port approach road starting this month and be completed by the end of this year.

A Home Office spokesperson responded to the recent discovery saying "that is why we have increased security and boosted technology used at border controls and are working with law enforcement at home and abroad to target the criminal gangs who are often behind such attempts."

Figures show around 10,000 refugees, most of which have travelled through devastating conditions from the Middle East to Europe, have managed to illegally enter Britain during the course of the year.