French authorities find 21 migrants from Iraq, Iran hiding in truck
Officials in France have found 21 migrants from Iran and
Iraq hiding in a refrigerated truck driving in the east of the country, regional
authorities said Tuesday.
The 10 men, six women and five children were taken in for
treatment by medical services, the authorities in the Meuse region said,
confirming a report first given by the local newspaper l'Est Republicain.
Some of the migrants had previously been given police orders
to leave French territory. Such notifications are often issued when asylum
applications are rejected, either because conditions were not met or because
the migrants entered the European Union via another country that is responsible
for determining their status.
The discovery of the migrants in the truck carried
uncomfortable echoes of a more tragic incident, in August 2017, in which 71
migrants died of suffocation in the back of a refrigerated truck in Hungary. That
vehicle was found abandoned on a highway in neighbouring Austria and four
people-smugglers -- an Afghan and three Bulgarians -- were convicted and
jailed.
