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Spanish driver finds nine Sudanese in back of his lorry in Purley Way

9:38am Friday 1st December 2006

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Nine suspected illegal immigrants were arrested by police after they were found hiding in the back of a lorry in Purley Way.

The driver of the Spanish HGV, which was travelling from Barcelona, called police at around 9.45am on Friday, November 24.

He told officers he heard banging noises coming from the back of his vehicle while he stopped for a tea break in Croydon.

When officers searched the vehicle, parked in a layby opposite Dragons Health Club in Imperial Way, they found nine men - thought to be Sudanese nationals aged in their 20s.

It is believed the passengers boarded the lorry at the Calais port in France. All nine have been arrested on suspicion of illegal entry to the UK and the matter is now being dealt with by the Immigration and Nationality Directorate.

Eyewitness Trevor Thipps said: "The lorry looked like it was refrigerated, I think it had been carrying meat. All of them were sitting around the RAF memorial looking very bemused.

"There were four police vans and three police cars and officers were surrounding them, standing guard."

Trevor's brother Geoff Thipps added: "A policeman told me the driver heard banging coming from the back of the lorry. He called the police himself. They seem to think they could have jumped in at Calais.

"I've seen lorries be pulled over here but I haven't seen anything like this before."

A spokesman for Croydon police said: "Police received a call from a member of public at around 9.45am to reports of suspicious behaviour inside the cargo section of a Spanish articulated lorry in Purley Way, opposite Dragons Health Club.

"Police arrived and following a search of the lorry arrested nine individuals on suspicion of illegal entry to the UK and are now being dealt with by Immigration."

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Your Say YourCroydon Guardian

S Jones, says...
7:18pm Fri 1 Dec 06

9 more added to our tax bills. Why can't they take them straight back to the ferry and put them on the first boat out?

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duke deburgh, says...
10:20pm Fri 1 Dec 06

I had assumed drivers found with illegal immigrants aboard were fined. It's all too easy to knowingly bring them in for profit and then claim ignorance.

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Croyboy, says...
2:43am Sat 2 Dec 06

In the absence of common-sense measures for dealing with illegal immigrants as advocated by S Jones, above – i.e. “take them straight back to the ferry and put them on the first boat out” - if the lorry was in fact refrigerated, the solution is simple: turn on the unit, and leave it over night. …Problem solved!



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andy goulding, says...
7:28am Sat 2 Dec 06

9 more for free housing and benifits they wont go home while local people cant get housing its a disgrace send them back.

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Osman, says...
6:09pm Mon 4 Dec 06

Guys, this is a simple price the UK is paying for 100's of years of colonizing and stealing resources from these countries. The UK occupied sudan for 56 years and had free hand on its resources particulary cotton. Instead of freezing them to death, pay them what you owe, it would be millions in todays money.

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Croyboy, says...
6:58am Wed 6 Dec 06

Guys, this is nowhere near as simple as Osman would suggest.
The vast majority of damage inflicted on the societies and economies of such countries as Sudan occurred since the ‘evil’ colonisers left(with the possible exception of the Belgian Congo). For example, for the most part Rhodesians had food in their stomachs, clothes their backs, roofs over their heads, and basic health and education – all a **** sight more than Zimbabweans can expect today (other than Robert Mugabe’s family, friends and cronies).

These people wanted to paddle their own canoe – and countries like Sudan have been doing so for some two generations now. It’s no good blaming the inefficiency, corruption, and criminal disregard that is typical of Africa onto the West. On the contrary, we’ve even been stupid enough to import it here (Check the national origins of the perpetrators of the sex/money for visas scandals at Lunar House.)

Oh, yes, and if we ought to “pay them what you owe”, perhaps Osman would be good enough to assess the conpensation due to us from Italy for the exploitation and enslavement of the British people by Imperial Rome
(for far longer than 56 years!)…or would you impose a time limit? If so, what would it be, and how would you decide on it?

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Comments are closed on this article.

Lost and found: Nine suspected illegal immigrants held by Purley Way war memorial. Lost and found: Nine suspected illegal immigrants held by Purley Way war memorial.

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