In a shocking incident which occurred on Thursday, 4 men have been reportedly hospitalized after being discovered stowed inside a container that arrived in Montreal on a ship that set sail 10 days ago from Germany.
What happened?
The Canada Border Services Agency has confirmed that it is investigating the incident involving “a number of stowaways”.
A union official present at the Port of Montreal, where the ship is recorded as having arrived early Thursday morning, said four men were discovered inside a container that also contained a vehicle and some food. The 4 men present inside the container were seen struggling to breathe.
Admitted to a hospital:
The four men aged between 30 and 40, were rushed to the hospital and it is assumed that they had been in the storage unit for many days. They were found suffering from severe dehydration
First instance of human cargo:
Nelson Tsoi, who is the shipping company’s Toronto-based head of operations, said in a brief interview that an internal investigation is underway and he could not provide any additional details on the ship or its apparent human cargo.
However Beaudin, the union official, said; “The discovery of stowaways is an almost unheard of occurrence in Montreal. It’s been a long time since we’ve seen something like that. I’ve been here 15 years. Back in 2005 there was an incident where they opened up boxes but didn’t find anything. Beaudin said they only way that the men would have been discovered is if they had been heard banging on the metal walls of the shipping container”.
Security officers on alert:
Michael Broad, president of the Montreal-based Shipping Federation of Canada, said ships have security officers to track who gets on and off vessels and there is intense security at ports, including fencing, guards, cameras and 24-hour surveillance, in an effort to prevent illegal migrants and other unwanted activity.
“It’s been quite some time since this has occurred and I can’t tell you the last time anyone was found in a container,” he said, adding that containers are sealed with a lock before they are loaded onto a ship.
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Source: Thestar
