Gardaí have launched a people-smuggling investigation after the males, all from east Africa, were discovered at Rosslare Europort in Co Wexford at around 10:30 am on Monday, January 27.

The men told gardaí they were from Eritrea and Somalia. They are all aged between 16 and 27. Eight were in good health but one man required hospital treatment.

It is understood concern over this man’s health is one of the reasons the men contacted emergency services before being discovered.

While Garda investigations are at an early stage, officers are confident this is a case of illegal people-smuggling being carried out in conjunction with east African gangs based in Europe and Africa.

The container is understood to have originated in Africa, and later made two stops at European ports, including one in Dunkirk, France, before arriving into Rosslare. Gardaí are now in the process of ascertaining where the men got into the container.

People-smuggling inquiry launched

It is understood they had been informed they would be brought to the UK, not Ireland, and had paid in excess of €2,000 for their 6,000km journey from Eritrea.

Rosslare continues to be a route used by people smugglers, despite multiple occasions when the stowaways were discovered. In one incident in October last, two men were found in a van on a ferry by the ship’s crew.

In January last year, 14 people, including two children, were discovered in a refrigerated trailer at Rosslare.

In the latest investigation, it will be important for the men to give any information about the people who attempted to smuggle them, sources stressed.

However, as in many similar cases, people who are discovered rarely want to give information about their smugglers due to threats to either them – selves or their families’ safety.

Gardaí will be working with international partners to find out who was behind the operation. Sources described most of the men inside the container as in "good shape" considering they’d spent over four days locked inside it.

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"Blessed they had the phone"

One source said: "You can imagine what it’s like in places like these: the smell and the human waste and everything else besides that.

"These are people looking for a better life and they are willing to wait in a container in the dark for days. In the end, they just had to call the emergency services.

"From what we have seen so far there were two reasons for this. The first was that one man was very unwell and the other was that they assumed they were at their final stop and were looking to get out.

"Either way, they’re blessed they had the phone on them so they could call for help."

Typically, people attempting to reach Europe from east Africa can pay anywhere between €2,000 and €5,000.

A report by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime’s Observatory on Smuggling of Migrants found the price per stowaway fluctuated wildly for several reasons including the nationality of the person as well as the different gangs which were operating.

Local councillor and paramedic Ger Carthy, who was a first responder at the scene, said the men in the container were "lucky" they had phone signal and that they were able to call 999.

'We've seen this before"

He told the Irish Daily Mail: "They were assessed at the scene and those who needed it were transferred to hospital. The rest are currently being processed by the Garda Immigration Bureau at the port of Rosslare.

"We’ve seen this before at Rosslare. We had 40 people a couple of years ago and then a few here and there." Typically those coming from east Africa will travel by land to north Africa, most likely Tunisia, where they will be placed on a ship or ferry.

On the Central Mediterranean sea route in 2023, over 280,000 people departed for Europe from North Africa.

The UN says the value of smuggling migrants by sea on the route is €270-€350million a year. Gardaí have appealed for anyone with information in relation to the latest discovery to contact them.

A spokesman said on Monday: "An Garda Síochána at Wexford Garda Station have commenced an investigation following the discovery of nine people in a shipping container at Rosslare Europort at approximately 10:30 am.

"Anyone with any information in relation to this discovery is asked to contact Wexford Garda Station on 053-9165200, the Garda Confidential Line on 1800 66 11, or any Garda station."

*This article was originally published on Extra.ie.