An Garda Síochána at Wexford Garda Station confirmed today, January 10, that they have commenced a human trafficking investigation following the discovery of 14 people in a shipping container arriving in Rosslare Europort at approximately 3 am on Monday, January 8.

Gardaí said they were alerted by UK authorities in advance and a coordinated plan was put in place with emergency services in Wexford in anticipation of their arrival to the port.

The nine men, three women, and two girls have been assessed by medical personnel and have been deemed to be in good health.

Gardaí attached to Wexford Garda Station, supported by the Garda National Immigration Bureau, are investigating all of the circumstances of this incident. They are liaising closely with international counterparts through Europol in The Hague.

The ship’s crew is assisting An Garda Síochána with these enquiries.

Anyone with any information in relation to this incident, no matter how insignificant it may appear, is asked to contact Wexford Garda Station 053-9165200, the Garda Confidential Line 1800 66 11, or any Garda Station.

On Wednesday, Ger Carthy, a local independent councillor in Rosslare and Operations Resource Manager with the National Ambulance Service, told RTÉ Morning Ireland that UK authorities received a call from an occupant of a refrigerated trailer on board a ship bound for Rosslare Europort. 

Carthy said the people had been in the refrigerated trailer for about 28 hours when the call was made.

The call was "passed to the emergency services in Ireland and there was a multi-agency response deployed to Rosslare Europort," Carthy said.

After being assessed by emergency services, the people were transported to a processing center in Dublin, Carthy said.

He remarked: "It seems to be quite a challenging and very dangerous trip for anyone to make, but I believe that they had difficulty breathing within the refrigerated trailer and may have had to break a hole in the side of it to access some air from within the ship itself."

Carthy was thankful that the outcome on Monday wasn't a repeat of the 2001 incident when 13 people were discovered in a container that had arrived in Ireland via Rosslare Europort - eight of the people, including four children, had tragically died.

Eugene Drennan, spokesperson and former president of the Irish Road Haulage Association, told RTÉ Morning Ireland on Wednesday that people were put on board "by a very professional gang."

Ireland's Minister for Transport Eamon Ryan said he was relieved no one among the 14 people died.

“We have to do everything to try and avoid such carriage and passage because it is dangerous and it's a risk to the lives of those who are put on those trucks or go on to those trucks,” said Ryan.

"We do have to try and make sure we stop and reduce - you cannot completely eliminate. We've seen the UK government, with France, trying to stop that level of passage.

"It is practically impossible to completely eliminate but we need to do everything to try to avoid it."

Ryan added: "We also as a country, we stand up for human rights in our country. We've always stood by the UN Charter for Human Rights central to our position and part of that is we have to respect and manage, to the best of our abilities, refugee rights."

Ryan admitted that has been "difficult" in Ireland, "particularly in recent months."