"I Spent Three Days In The Back Of A Lorry To Get To The UK"

24 October 2019, 08:42

An LBC listener told Nick Ferrari how he spent three days in the back of a lorry as he smuggled himself into the UK.

After 39 bodies were discovered in the back of a lorry container in an industrial estate in Grays, Essex, Romanian-born Mario called LBC to reveal his own experience of reaching Britain.

He paid 300 Deutschmarks - around £130 - to get from Milan to the UK 21 years ago.

"The man who put us in the truck said to us he's given us the key tools for life - a chisel and a hammer, some chocolate and some water.

"He told us we'd be in the container for seven nights, but we were lucky and did only three nights. There were four of us in the container, packed with yoghurt and cases of red wine.

"It was total darkness in the truck. It was bloody cold. We had to pee into a plastic bottle or a red wine bottle.

"We went from Milan, up through France and to Belgium. At Zebrugge, I remember very clearly when we got on the ferry, they opened the container, but they didn't see the container as we were put right at the back.

"We knew they had scanners at Calais, so we made sure to avoid that port.

"When the driver parked at a lorry park, we used the chisel and hammer to bang for hours to make a little hatch to get out of the steel container.

"We got out and ended up at Dartford Train Station. We saw London on the screen and made our way there before calling our contacts."

Mario is now a legal citizen in the UK with a wife and family. But the story has a bittersweet end. When Nick Ferrari asked if it was worth risking his life for, he responded simply: "No."