13 children were among immigrants found in container

Thirteen children, including a child as young as one, were among the Afghan immigrants rescued from a shipping container on Saturday.

Thirty of the 35-strong group found screaming and banging at the Port of Tilbury are being quizzed by officials after being released from hospital.

Essex Police said they include nine men and eight women aged between 18 and 72 as well as 13 children aged between one and 12.

It was also revealed that the man who died after the container was opened — prompting a murder probe — is believed to have been in his 40s.

An autopsy was carried out yesterday but further tests are to be undertaken to establish the cause of death.

Four others remain in Southend Hospital and were expected to be kept in for a second night.

A statement issued by police said the 30 people who have been released from hospital after being treated for hypothermia and dehydration are still being spoken to “about their ordeal”.

Once the interviews have been completed, they will be passed into the care of the Border Force.

It was disclosed earlier that the immigrants are Sikhs who are understood to be from Afghanistan.

Superintendent Trevor Roe, of Essex Police, said: “The welfare and health of the people is our priority at this stage. Now they are well enough, our officers and colleagues from the Border Force will be speaking to them via interpreters so we can piece together what happened and how they came to be in the container.

“We now understand that they are from Afghanistan and are of the Sikh faith.

“We have had a good deal of help from partners within the local Sikh community in the Tilbury area to ensure that these poor people, who would have been through a horrific ordeal, are supported in terms of their religious and clothing needs.”

Police believe substances found in the container are cleaning chemicals which are not thought to pose any health risk. The company which owns the container has not been named.

Belgian police indicated that they believe the immigrants were probably already inside when it was dropped at a European port before setting sail for Britain.

Peter De Waele, spokesman for the Federal Police in Belgium, said it appeared to be “impossible” for the 35 men, women, and children to be loaded into the unit in the time it was at Zeebrugge, a port in the north of the country.

He said investigators have been combing CCTV and are “very hopeful” they can track down the driver and company of the vehicle that deposited the container.

Mr De Waele declined to confirm whether detectives have already identified the vehicle which delivered the container to Zeebrugge.

He added that they are working closely with Essex police and described tackling human trafficking as a “priority” in Belgium.

The container was one of around 50 on board the P&O Ferries commercial vessel the Norstream when it arrived in Essex.

The immigrants were rescued after port authorities heard noises from inside at around 6.30am on Saturday.

Bhai Amrik Singh, chair of the Sikh Federation (UK), said: “It is a disgrace the persecution of the tiny minority of Sikhs from Afghanistan has largely been ignored and it takes an incident like this to remind us all that they are also being exploited by human traffickers.”