28 immigrants smuggled into Britain

DOVER, ENGLAND, JULY 30. A lorry driver was today charged with smuggling 28 immigrants, believed to be from the Indian sub- continent, into Britain only a month after 58 Chinese immigrants were found suffocated in the back of a lorry here.

Julian Lee, 26, was chased by eight police cars for nearly 100 km after refusing to stop as he drove off a cross- channel ferry on Saturday at Dover, in southeastern England.

More than an hour later, the British driver's lorry was forced into a ditch. The immigrants were ``taken into custody and have now been handed over to immigration officials,'' police said.

Police had originally said that 30 illegal immigrants, all men, were found inside, but today the count was revised to 28. Lee ``has been charged with 28 counts of facilitation - illegally bringing people into the country,'' said a police spokesman for the County of Kent.

He faces a record fine of œ 56,000 ($ 84,000) - œ 2,000 for each immigrant - under recently introduced laws which apply even if the driver is unaware that the vehicle is carrying passengers.

Police declined to identify the continental port which Lee had left from, but his arrest was a sign that Britain remains a favourite destination for human traffickers.

- AFP

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