Two children and 12 adults found in refrigerated trailer at Rosslare Europort

The lorry had arrived from France and the terminal building at the port was taken over by emergency services. File picture

Two children and 12 adults have been discovered hidden within a refrigerated trailer on board a lorry arriving at Rosslare Europort.

The lorry had arrived from France and the terminal building at the port was taken over by emergency services during the early hours of Monday.

The 14 people hidden within the trailer are reported to be of Middle Eastern origin.

They were uncovered after one of the people inside the trailer rang the UK police to inform them they were inside the container on board the ferry.

Gardaí took over part of the terminal building in Rosslare to greet the fourteen individuals on arrival and a number of units from the National Ambulance Service were on hand to administer medical attention as required.

All on board the refrigerated trailer were understood to be in good health and once they were fully checked they were brought by gardaí to CityWest in Dublin for "processing".

A Garda source confirmed that those on board the trailer were primarily Kurdish nationals, and, following medical examinations, they were brought to the nearest processing centre.

"There's very little involvement locally," the source said. "We just bring them on to the nearest processing centre, which I believe is CityWest in Dublin. From there, the initial processing of their details and documents will be carried out before they are taken to an accommodation centre, and a decision will be made around whether they apply for political asylum."

Wexford county councillor Ger Carthy said that it was fortunate that this latest incident had not resulted in tragedy.

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said: “I only have some initial reports from Rosslare so we're limited in what I can say at this stage.

“My understanding is the 14 people have been found in a container in a truck in Rosslare Europort. Our first response is always a humanitarian one to check that they are alive and in good health. And my understanding is that they are.

“Our next step now is to facilitate voluntary return their return home if they're willing to go home, and if they choose to apply for asylum, they are legally entitled to do that we'll try and process the application as quickly as possible."