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Sixteen migrants were found in the trailer of a truck on a ferry from France to Ireland, Stena Line reported on Thursday. PAUL ELLIS / AFP

After the discovery of sixteen illegal migrants in a ferry from France, Ireland fears that this kind of events is increasingly common with the tightening of controls between Calais and Britain.

With our correspondent in Dublin, Emeline Vin

The sixteen migrants discovered Thursday in the back of a truck aboard a ferry between Cherbourg and Ireland were supported by government agencies. Two of them would be minors. The sixteen men are Kurds from Iraq and Iran.

Transport companies are the most worried. The main company in Ireland explains that for about a year, regularly, its drivers find in their trucks migrants. The boss Willie O'Leary denounces the laxity of the port authorities of Cherbourg. " Cherbourg is not doing its job in terms of control. One day, we will open the truck door and find dead people. "

This lack of rigor is confirmed by the French police at the Irish Times . A police source explains that in fact, the controls in Cherbourg are less strict than in the north of France for example and that, therefore, the networks of smugglers of migrants probably prefer the alternative road Cherbourg-Ireland then United Kingdom.

Ireland, "back door for the United Kingdom "

For Ireland's Minister of Justice Charlie Flanagan, it is in Irish ports that controls need to be tightened, as " Ireland is becoming a back door for the United Kingdom ". In recent months, the Irish authorities fear a migratory influx and a new Calais is developing on the island.

This incident comes a few weeks after the discovery of the bodies of 39 Vietnamese migrants in a container near London. In another incident on Tuesday, the crew of a DFDS ferry discovered 25 migrants in a refrigerated container on a boat traveling to Britain.