25 Sikh stowaways found in truck in Belgium

London, Mar 10: At least 25 illegal Sikh immigrants, including children, were found hiding in a secret compartment of a Romanian truck by police at an industrial zone in Belgium.

On a tip-off about human trafficking, police stopped a Romanian lorry last evening and found 25 Sikhs aged between 2 and 88 squashed together in a secret compartment.

"Behind a whole load of onions in the hold we discovered a self-made cage. The cage was no bigger than 4 square metres, but contained 25 people of Sikh origins, all squashed together," a local official said.

"The people could be freed from this hazardous condition and were taken care of by civil protection officers," he was quoted as saying by Flandersnews.be.

The traffickers were thought to be intending to set off from a carwash in Essen. Two Romanian drivers were detained as well as the manager of the car wash. They are suspected of people-trafficking with exacerbating circumstances.

PTI