When you open up the trailer, it’s a disgrace,’ says Lorenzo Zaccheo, standing in the yard of his international haulage company in Kent, just ten miles from the Channel Tunnel.
asserted
Zaccheo → open → Tunnel
It’s an absolute shambles.’
asserted
It → ’ → ?
Seventy-one-year-old Lorenzo – who founded his haulage firm Alcaline in 1993 – is recalling the time when, earlier this summer, he discovered five illegal migrants who had stowed away in two separate lorries that had travelled to the UK from Italy via France and were full of goods destined for the British market.
asserted
that → found → market
The mess the young men left behind is one thing, but it’s nothing compared to the legal headache they created for Lorenzo.
asserted
they → leave → Lorenzo
For a start, his company and the drivers involved faced fines of up to £10,000 per migrant, despite the fact – as Lorenzo stresses – it should be up to Border Force not lorry drivers to police illegal migration.
asserted
it → involve → migration
Then there’s the cost of repairing the roof of the trailer, which the migrants slash with a Stanley knife to gain entry, as well as the cost of any damaged goods inside.
asserted
migrants → ’ → goods
‘Enough is enough,’ Lorenzo continues.
asserted
Lorenzo → continue → ?
‘We can’t go on like this.
asserted
We → go → this
You ring the police, but it’s three hours before they show up.
asserted
they → ring → police
You can’t force the migrants to stay put, because the second you put a hand on them it’s assault.
asserted
it → force → them
One migrant this summer jumped out of the lorry and ran straight out, wriggling under the fence never to be seen again.
asserted
migrant → jump → fence
And then I’m the one the police interrogate for four hours as though I’m guilty, despite the fact that I rang 999 in the first place.
asserted
I → ’m → place
Lorenzo is so incensed about the situation that he parked a ‘massive’ articulated lorry in the main hall of the conference centre hosting Reform UK’s annual rally in Birmingham earlier this month.
asserted
he → park → Birmingham
A party donor, Lorenzo bent the ear of anyone who would listen to him talk about the migrant issue.
asserted
him → bend → issue
So this week, the Daily Mail travelled to his base in Port Lympne in Kent to hear first-hand from Lorenzo and his employees at Alcaline just how desperate the situation is for UK hauliers whose drivers unwittingly ferry illegal migrants into the country.
asserted
drivers → travel → country
The squeeze on Channel crossings has driven fears of a new wave of lorry stowaways as people smugglers seek other routes into Britain
They feel they’ve been left by Border Force to combat illegal migration on their own – all while fuel costs spiral and drivers walk away from the job fearing for their safety.
asserted
drivers → drive → safety
And their fears are well founded.
asserted
fears → found → ?
On one occasion, an Alcaline driver was stabbed by a migrant at the side of the road, and another beaten up so badly he had to be taken to hospital by ambulance.
asserted
he → stab → ambulance
Twenty years ago, migrants stowing away in the back of lorries was a major problem for UK Border Force.
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migrants → stow → Force
That was until 2016, when the UK government funded the so-called ‘Great Wall of Calais’, a four-metre-high fence which runs a kilometre along the highway leading to the port.
asserted
which → fund → port
It was the installation of this barrier, together with the introduction of high-tech, heat-detection scanners, as well as sniffer dogs and carbon dioxide monitors, that forced the people smugglers to change their modus operandi.
asserted
that → force → operandi
Instead of using lorries, they began resorting to ferrying their customers across the water on small boats instead.
asserted
they → use → boats
The number of people travelling to Britain in this way peaked in 2022, when 46,000 migrants arrived on UK shores in rubber dinghies.
asserted
migrants → travel → dinghies
For the year ending June 2026, the total fell to around 33,000, according to the Home Office, but the problem has become that much more visible because the traffickers are using ever bigger vessels – with one carrying no fewer than 230 migrants on August 10.
uncertain
traffickers → end → August
And it is this squeeze on Channel crossings that has driven fears of a new wave of lorry stowaways as people smugglers seek other routes into Britain.
asserted
smugglers → drive → Britain
Just a few weeks ago, a video went viral of four migrant men jumping out of a lorry parked in a lay-by off the A414 near Maldon, Essex, before escaping into the countryside.
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men → go → countryside
So just how many illegal migrants enter Britain this way?
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migrants → enter → Britain
From June 2025 to last June, the Home Office caught 1,962 people who had arrived illegally either by lorry or ferry – a figure down by 11 per cent on the previous year.
asserted
who → catch → year
However, many escape detection so the true number is expected to be far higher.
asserted
number → escape → detection
Lorenzo has his own statistics to add to official figures.
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Lorenzo → have → figures
He says his lorries make some 10,000 round trips to Europe annually and estimates that an average of eight migrants successfully stow away in their vehicles each year.
asserted
average → say → vehicles
Lorenzo Zaccheo says his lorries make some 10,000 round trips to Europe annually and estimates that an average of eight migrants successfully stow away in his vehicles each year
But how do they do it?
asserted
they → say → it
In some extreme cases, migrants have been known to board lorries as they slow their speed at roundabouts in northern France.
asserted
they → know → France
Indeed, earlier this year, one video shared on TikTok before it was deleted offered a step-by-step guide to doing just this, including tips on where to hide in the bushes, when to start running towards the moving vehicle and how to jump into the space between the cab and the trailer.
asserted
it → share → cab
But the majority of clandestine boardings take place while vehicles are stationary.
asserted
vehicles → take → place
The migrants take advantage of drivers who are taking toilet breaks, parked up at night or even sitting bumper-to-bumper in traffic on the French A26 leading into Calais.
asserted
who → take → Calais
This stretch of road has become so notorious for migrant incursions that Alcaline has told its drivers to avoid taking toilet breaks at this point.
asserted
Alcaline → become → point
‘We have a company policy that, within about a three-hour drive of the Channel Tunnel, no one’s stopping there,’ says Lorenzo, though he admits this can be a challenge for older drivers and, as their average age is late 50s, with the oldest being 74, it certainly is.
asserted
it → have → drivers
And the migrants have no problems working out which lorries are heading across the Channel.
asserted
lorries → have → Channel
‘The problem is we have UK plates and we’re headed north,’ he says.
asserted
he → have → plates
…and 50 more, not listed.
The Aporia
