Sussex holiday family discover migrant in roof box
- Published
Sussex holiday family fined after migrant found in roofbox
A family drove home from a holiday in Spain to find a migrant in their roof box - and were then fined for bringing him into the UK.
It is thought Isa, from Sudan, travelled with Toby and Rhiannon Reynolds, and their four children, from a shopping centre in Calais to Sussex.
The couple thought tapping noises they heard were rattling bottles of wine, before they realised it was a person.
After arriving home, police helped Isa "calmly" emerge, Mrs Reynolds said.
She said she "called police very loudly from inside the car" so the person in the roof box could hear.
"We had no idea who was in there and what his intentions were. You know, if he was armed. It was terrifying," she said.
Mrs Reynolds said she was not asked if the couple checked the roof box
Mrs Reynolds, who is from Wadhurst, said the family lost thousands of pounds worth of clothes and toiletries that were originally in the roof box, and they did not get much back from the insurance.
But she said Border Force hit them with a £200 fine in March for bringing a clandestine person into the country.
She claimed this was unfair as she and her husband were unaware they could have a stowaway.
Mrs Reynolds said she accepted the car was "our responsibility," but said: "Nobody at any point asked us if we checked our roof box."
'Desperate'
The Home Office said it did not comment on individual cases.
A spokesman said: "We provide guidance to anyone travelling across the Channel on steps they need to take to secure their vehicle to prevent clandestine entrants.
"It is right that people are fined if they do not follow these preventative measures."
Dr Peter Walsh, a researcher at the Migration Observatory at the University of Oxford, said the migrant's attempt to enter the UK in a roof box was "shocking".
He said the "protracted civil war" in Sudan had caused many to flee.
"This gives you an indication of how desperate they can be, to get into a space that small," he said.
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