Six women have been rescued from the back of a refrigerated lorry truck in France, after hiding for hours believing it was headed to the UK or Ireland.
The women – four Vietnamese and two Iraqis – started to panic when they realised the lorry was going in a different direction, with one reaching out to a BBC journalist for help.
The women were squeezed into the back of the lorry alongside boxes of bananas, and said it was difficult to breathe in the cold. The texter was able to share her live GPS location.
The BBC reporter who received the panicked message from one of the women was able to alert French police to instigate a search for the women. Police were able to track them down and intercept the lorry.
French prosecutor Laetitia Francart said the truck driver was not at fault or involved.
The women told investigators that “they climbed aboard the truck thinking they were going to England because of the Irish registration plates,” Francart said in a statement.
“After several hours on the road without a stop, they realized their mistake and alerted a journalist.”
The lorry was heading to Italy, it’s been reported.
When it was opened, the temperature inside the lorry was 6C. Luckily, none of the women were in poor health.
Four of the six women are now being deported from France within 30 days, while two have been authorised to stay in France pending asylum requests.
The BBC journalist involved in the incident, Khue B Luu, likened the situation to the tragic story of 39 Vietnamese migrants who were found dead in a lorry back in 2019 after suffocating.
“I felt cold all over,” Khue B Luu said, recounting how she felt when she was contacted by the woman in the lorry.