Over 800 stowaways caught trying to cross from NL to UK

A total of 840 people tried to illegally cross from the Netherlands over to Britain between January and September this year, according to figures the Ministry of Security and Justice released on Tuesday. That number is already much higher than in all of 2015, when a total of around 500 stowaways were caught, ANP reports.

Most stowaways were caught getting into a truck in Hoek van Holland. 450 of the 840 stowaways were found in Hoek van Holland, 180 in Europoort and 10 in IJmuiden. 190 people were found in the United Kingdom. 43 percent of the stowaways were from Albania and 8 percent from Poland, according to the figures.

An increasing number of stowaways are found on the Dutch side of the North Sead. This year 78 percent were caught before they could make the crossing, compared to 55 percent last year. According to the Ministry, this shows that extra measures and checks implemented are effective.