Overview
- Essex Police arrested six men and two women at the junction 26 lorry park in Waltham Abbey on October 28 after removing them from a lorry.
- Paramedics assessed the group before they were taken into custody on suspicion of immigration offences, where they remain.
- The lorry driver was arrested on suspicion of facilitating illegal entry and has since been released without charge.
- Eyewitness video showed a large emergency-services response as officers guided people from the truck at the site.
- The discovery follows a separate Uxbridge stabbing case in which the suspect is reported to have arrived by lorry in 2020, and detections of stowaways at continental ports rose to 5,874 from 4,794 in 2023, according to BBC South East.