Thirty-nine bodies, including one of a teenager, have been found in a truck container in Essex, southeast England, the BBC reported.
The bodies were found in a truck an Industrial Park in Grays, early Wednesday morning.
It is understood the lorry was originally from Bulgaria and was travelling from Holyhead, Wales, where ferries sail to and from Ireland.
The lorry’s driver, a 25-year-old man from Northern Ireland, has been arrested on suspicion of murder.
Police have not said where they believed the people who died were from or where they were thought to be travelling to. They said it could take a long time to identify those who have died.
Authorities were warned last year that people smugglers saw the Irish border as a weak point in the UK border and were taking migrants to Ireland before transporting them to Britain. It is not known whether that happened in this case.
Richard Burnett, chief executive of the Road Haulage Society, said ‘this tragedy highlights the danger of migrant gangs people-smuggling on lorries’.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson said he is “appalled by this tragic incident in Essex”.
“I am receiving regular updates and the Home Office will work closely with Essex police as we establish exactly what has happened,” he wrote on Twitter.
People smugglers see the Irish border as a weak point to get people in Britain, it emerged last year, the Daily Mail reported.
An Iranian man told the BBC how he was flown to Dublin, where there are deemed to be fewer and less rigorous checks, on a false passport, before being transported on to London.
An investigation found that, after getting to Ireland, migrants were then being taken to Belfast and onto a ferry to Glasgow.
Last summer, migrants were being charged 10,000 pounds each to make the whole journey.
