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| Tilbury Docks container stowaways 'Sikhs from Afghanistan' | Tilbury Docks container stowaways 'Sikhs from Afghanistan' |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| A group of 35 men, women and children found inside a shipping container at a port are understood to be Sikhs from Afghanistan, Essex Police say. | A group of 35 men, women and children found inside a shipping container at a port are understood to be Sikhs from Afghanistan, Essex Police say. |
| They were discovered after a freighter arrived at Tilbury Docks from Belgium on Saturday and have been described as victims of "people trafficking". | |
| One man was found dead and the others were taken to hospital to be treated for severe dehydration and hypothermia. | |
| Thirty have now been released into the care of police and Border Force staff. | |
| They are to be interviewed to find out how they came to be inside the container. | |
| Police launched a homicide investigation following the man's death and officers are working with Interpol and other international authorities to try to establish what happened. | |
| 'Horrific ordeal' | |
| Four remain at Southend Hospital. It is thought they will be discharged later on Sunday. | |
| Superintendent Trevor Roe of Essex Police said: "The welfare and health of the people is our priority at this stage. | |
| "Now they are well enough, our officers and colleagues from the Border Force will be speaking to them via interpreters so we can piece together what happened and how they came to be in the container. | |
| "We now understand that they are from Afghanistan and are of the Sikh faith. | |
| "We have had a good deal of help from partners within the local Sikh community in the Tilbury area to ensure that these poor people, who would have been through a horrific ordeal, are supported in terms of their religious and clothing needs." | |
| The discovery was made after the container arrived from the Belgian village of Zeebrugge at about 06:00 BST on Saturday when "screaming and banging" were heard coming from inside. | |
| All the remaining containers on the ship have been searched and no-one else has been found. | |
| Essex Police said there were initial concerns more people could be inside a container that arrived at Purfleet but that this turned out not to be the case. | |
| Belgian police said they believed the lorry which delivered the container in Zeebrugge had been identified through CCTV footage. | |
| Chief Inspector Peter De Waele said: "The Belgian civil police is checking all the images and my colleagues are very, very hopeful that we find the truck who put the container in Zeebrugge. | |
| "I think it is very, very important that we have the identification of that truck and also of the driver." | |
| He added it was likely the people were already inside the container when it was dropped at Zeebrugge as it appeared "impossible" the group could have entered it during the hour it was at the port. | |
| It is not known where the container, one of 64 aboard the P&O commercial vessel Norstream, originated, nor where the people inside it were heading. |