The moment a migrant boards a moving truck going into the Port of Calais

Описание: Footage shows the moment a migrant boards a truck going into the Port of Calais

Barry Moore of BM Logistics on the fines faced by companies and drivers working internationally.

Reports of truckers being offered up to €25,000 to smuggle illegal migrants has been branded as 'appalling' by a driver.

The Irish Daily Mail has claimed drivers around the country have been offered the money to smuggle illegal migrants into the European Union.

Truck driver Cyril McGuinness told Lunchtime Live he hasn't been offered money but it's not something new.

"I think it's appalling," he said.

"There has been smuggling since the time of horses and carts.

"Most professional hauliers would have nothing to do with that, whether it's people or drugs or whatever.

"But there are people that will smuggle".

Mr McGuinness recalled the case of 39 people found dead in the back of a lorry in England in 2019.

"Anyone that does it, anyone that accepts it should be locked away and the keys thrown away," he said.

Mr McGuinness said his company has 'given up' work on the continent because of issues in ports like Calais.

"We were in a position where we'd be coming from the continent, Italy or Germany, and our drivers couldn't sleep on the road," he said.

"The curtains would be cut, fellas would jump in.

"You would be inspected by the French police, you would be inspected by the UK customs in Calais.

"Then if you get off the boat in Dover, if somebody had cut a whole in your trailer and got in unknownst... you were fined €2,000 for each man, woman and child.

"We'd have to drive literally from the German border non-stop to the boat and get straight on the boat.

"We gave up doing that work".

Mr McGuinness said they had "no back up from customs or police" if they found stowaways in their trailer.

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