20-day-old baby rescued from suffocating in back of lorry at Watford Gap services after being smuggled into UK from Calais Jungle
A BABY girl born just 20 days ago in the Calais Jungle camp is rescued from the back of a lorry after being smuggled into Britain.
The nation’s tiniest migrant was among a group of ten Iraqis who spent ten hours in the cramped truck.
They were discovered at the M1’s Watford Gap services. The baby was said to be healthy.
Immigration officials are investigating the matter.
A stunned onlooker told how he heard shouts of “No air” from the back of a packed truck that carried ten Iraqis including the young tot into Britain.
Road worker Richard Glover raised the alarm when he heard banging from inside the lorry at an M1 service station.
Police who opened the doors found the migrants gasping in the stifling heat — with the tiny tot among them.
Richard, 24, said: “I could see no food or water in the lorry.
“It had been a muggy night and it was a warm day, so conditions would have been stifling.
“They could all have suffocated in there — including the baby.”
Shocking footage obtained by The Sun showed the dramatic moment cops wrenched open the doors to find the hidden Iraqis at Watford Gap on Tuesday.
Last night the group were being quizzed by immigration officials over how they smuggled themselves into the UK.
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All had medical checks at a local hospital and the baby was said to be in a healthy condition.
Details of the Iraqis’ 2,500-mile journey emerged after the child’s father, in his forties, poured out his heart to Richard.
He explained how he and his wife left the Middle East over four weeks earlier as she was in the last days of her pregnancy.
It is thought they crossed into Turkey and paid a people-smuggler to travel by boat to Greece.
Tragically, their six-year-old son — who was travelling separately — died when his flimsy boat sank, also killing 21 others.
The family are then thought to have found their way to the Jungle camp outside Calais, currently home to some 10,000 migrants.
It just shows how desperate they are
Onlooker Richard Glover
The baby is believed to have been born there before — at 3am on Tuesday — the family and the rest of the Iraqis boarded the Spanish-registered lorry which entered the UK via the Chunnel.
They hid in a 4ft gap between the doors and the driver’s cargo of football shirts and sports kit before being rescued at 12.30pm.
Richard, of Wellingborough, Northants, was alerted to the migrants as he and a pal took a lunch break from a nearby job.
He said: “We heard banging and shouting from the lorry. The driver was standing looking confused. We could hear a male voice shouting to be let out.
“He was saying, ‘No air’ in a foreign accent and sounded desperate — but the driver made it clear he was not opening the cab without the police present.
“I got on the mobile and two cars arrived after 20 minutes.”
Richard said it was a “pitiful sight” as cops opened the doors.
The mum was cradling her newborn tot — dressed in a blue romper suit — along with her veiled 16-year-old daughter.
Her shaven-headed husband lowered their three-year-old daughter, wearing red trousers and a T-shirt, out of the trailer.
She swung a small blue case as three dazed-looking men in their late teens or twenties, thought to be relatives, were led with others to police vehicles.
Richard added: “They shouldn’t be here but you’d need a heart of stone not to feel sorry for them. It just bought it home how desperate they are to get to the UK.”
