Six people found alive in a shipping container after one made a call from inside, and the man arrested over it is released without charge

Six people, including a minor, were found alive inside a sealed shipping container at a port in Ireland after one of them managed to raise the alarm with a call from inside.

A man in his 40s was arrested in connection with the discovery and later released without charge, with a file being prepared for the Director of Public Prosecutions, TheJournal.ie reported. The five men and a juvenile were found aboard the MS Lismore once it reached Rosslare Europort in County Wexford on September 17, per the Irish Times.

One of the men made a call from inside the container while the ship was still at sea, and officers from An Garda Síochána, Ireland’s national police, boarded and searched the vessel once it berthed.

The police have yet to confirm the group’s nationality. The Irish Times reported that the six are understood to be Algerian, while RTÉ reported that they are believed to be of Kurdish descent. All six were taken to Wexford General Hospital with injuries that were not life-threatening, and three remained in hospital receiving treatment, according to the Irish Times. Gardaí said two of the adults were refused permission to land, and the juvenile is receiving appropriate support.

The container’s journey started in Belgium. The MS Lismore left Zeebrugge at 11 p.m. on September 15 and docked at Rosslare around 4 a.m. on September 17, roughly 29 hours later.

The danger of the journey

Ger Carthy, a local independent councillor who is a member of the National Ambulance Service, said the container had been sealed in Belgium before sailing to Ireland. He noted that Rosslare handles about 36 ships a week and roughly half a million container movements a year, according to the Irish Times.

Ger Hyland, president of the Irish Road Haulage Association, said the six could have spent up to a week inside once waiting time at each end was counted. He said the container could have sat in Zeebrugge for two or three days and then on a quay in Ireland for another two or three.

Hyland said the risk falls on drivers who open the doors at delivery. “You don’t know what you’re going to find,” he told RTÉ. He added that criminal gangs often load people into containers bound for the UK, and that when they end up in Ireland instead, it’s “a complete surprise for them.”

Rosslare has seen this before, and Gardaí found nine people in a container at the port in January 2025, according to the Irish Times. A Garda spokesperson for Wexford said the investigation into this incident is continuing.