Fourteen would-be immigrants from Afghanistan were discovered alive in a refrigerated lorry in France, French media reported Friday, according to dpa. The daily Le Parisien reported that the young Afghans stole aboard the lorry overnight near the northern port city of Calais while the driver slept. According to the report, the 14 believed the vehicle would take them to Britain, when in fact it was headed to the south of France. After around 300 kilometres the stowaways, aged between 15 and 18 years, began to beat against the vehicle from the inside, alerting the Hungarian lorry driver who then called the police. All the would-be immigrants, two of whom suffered from hypothermia, were examined by physicians and then put in police custody. Since the closure of a migrant camp near Calais in December 2002, hundreds of refugees from Chad, Sudan and Afghanistan have been scattered around the area, waiting for an opportunity to head to Britain where many of them have relatives.
