A young Iraqi migrant has been found crushed to death in a truck after apparently sneaking on to the vehicle in an attempt to reach Britain, French authorities said.
The 20-year-old man was discovered in the back of the HGV near the Port of Calais at around 7am on Tuesday.
The Hungarian lorry driver found the man’s body after inspecting his cargo, a spokesman for the Prefecture du Pas de Calais said.
“He braked for a reason that was unknown,” he said.
Two other members of the Iraqi man’s family were also found on board the lorry but were unhurt, the spokesman added.
He is the 12th migrant to die since the start of the cross-Channel migrant crisis, which has placed UK police and social services under huge strain.
An estimated 5,000 migrants displaced from countries including Syria, Libya and Eritrea are believed to be camped in and around Calais.
The surge in migrants attempting to cross the Channel prompted a string of measures to increase security at the terminal, including extra fencing and the deployment of more border force search and dog teams.
At its peak, the number of attempts to board lorries or trains was around 2,000 a night - but that has since fallen.
The crisis in Calais is part of a wider migrant surge in to Europe from countries in North Africa and the Middle East.
Earlier this month, prime minister David Cameron announced plans to take 20,000 people from camps in the Syrian region.
It came after pressure to admit more people from the war-ravaged country following the publication of photographs of three-year-old Aylan Kurdi, who drowned with his mother and brother trying to cross from Turkey to Greece by boat.
PA