by A van driver has been found guilty of smuggling migrants in a hidden compartment who were found screaming for help as they were starved of oxygen.
Anas Al Mustafa, 43, was convicted of aiding and abetting illegal migration by trafficking the seven in a specially adapted van on a ferry between Dieppe, France, and Newhaven, East Sussex, on February 16.
The discovery at the East Sussex port prompted a major emergency services response, with ambulances, police and the Border Force in attendance.
Jurors at Lewes Crown Court heard how the six men and one woman were being starved of oxygen and suffering from dehydration in the hidden space that was “the width of a human chest”.
Following the jury’s unanimous verdict, prosecutor Nick Corsellis KC told the court that while the younger migrants had survived dehydration and the heat, one man had a possible heart attack, an acute kidney injury one woman and another man went to the hospital in a comatose state and suffered a stroke.
Judge Christine Laing KC said Al Mustafa was likely to receive a “substantial custodial sentence” for his role in the trade, and that the consequences could be “dire” for those trying to enter the country.
The trial heard how crew members on the Seven Sisters ship heard pleas from inside a van on deck during the trip and used an ax to break down the fake partition that was hiding the people inside to free them.
Opening the case, the prosecutor, Mr Corsellis, said the hidden compartment was two meters wide, 194cm high and 37cm wide narrow, forcing the migrants to stand, and unable to move to any meaningful extent.
They were not provided with water, the prosecutor added.
Mr Corsellis said: “The heat created by seven people in such a small space and the lack of sufficient air/oxygen created an extremely dangerous situation.
“There is no doubt that it was this death emergency that forced the migrants to seek help in desperation.”
Two of the migrants had lost consciousness by the time they were rescued at around 9.20am, and the whole group was taken to hospital and treated, jurors were told.
An Australian nurse and passenger on the ferry, Sari Gehle, responded to the crew’s call for help during the incident and described the female casualty as “scared”, repeatedly grabbing her arm saying: “Vietnam, Vietnam”, so she realized the group was from there.
Other men remembered her casualty being on the floor, with one vomiting, and another with a cut across her left shoulder. They were all given oxygen masks.
During the trial, Al Mustafa, from Swansea, denied knowing they were in the vehicle and told jurors he was “disturbed” and “completely numb” by the discovery.
The father-of-two said it was the “hardest day of his life”.
The court previously heard how Al Mustafa, who was originally from Syria but moved to the UK in 2010-2011, was last seen in Syria by a man called Badr who said he was wanted from him to do a job for him driving a van. .
The prosecution said in a police interview without an interpreter that Al Mustafa had previously been paid £500 to drive the van to get an MoT in Liverpool, but for the February post he was being paid £5,000 to drive the van to the UK.
Jurors heard Al Mustafa told police he did not know there were people in the van but because he was being paid £5,000 he thought “maybe this time there are people in”.
Mr Corsellis asked the jury to consider whether this was an admission, adding: “We suggest that the defendant was not telling the whole truth about his involvement in trafficking.”
When asked about the interview, Al Mustafa told jurors through an interpreter that the sum of £5,000 was incorrect and that he meant £500.
He also said that he did not remember telling the police that he thought there might be people in the van and that he did not know why he said that.
Instead, Al Mustafa told the court he flew to Amsterdam for a holiday and met Badr at the airport who suggested he drive the same van he had previously driven for the MoT back to the garage as gearbox fault.
Speaking after the verdict, Lauren Doshi, from the Crown Prosecution Service, said: “The defendant in this case tried to hide people being smuggled into this country.
“There was a lot of effort to adapt a van to hide people in dangerous and potentially life-threatening conditions. All this was designed to circumvent the checks and border controls we have in place to prevent illegal immigration. He put the lives of the people he tried to smuggle into the UK at risk.
“We will seek to pursue any money or assets gained through this crime with our Proceeds of Crime Division.”
The self-employed construction worker will be sentenced on September 6.
