Suspect illegal immigrants make it to Britain... in a horsebox

0 Comments | AFP, August, 2005

LONDON (AFP) — A racehorse transporter revealed a group of stowaways had made it to Britain in his horsebox after a trip to France.

Eight men, believed to be illegal immigrants, bolted the minute the doors opened in Wantage, southern England, but police, spurred into action, reined in the stowaways at a canter.

The total number of illegal immigrants living in Britain could be 570,000, or nearly one percent of the total population, the government said in its first official estimate in June.

Michael Hinchcliffe had sent his nine-horse transporter to Charles de Gaulle airport near Paris to fly a horse to the United States on Saturday.

French Sunday laws on empty lorries meant his driver had to park at the port of Calais for a day before crossing the...