The men and women, aged from 16 to 45, had paid up to £20,000 (US$32,600) each, probably to human smugglers, to travel from Vietnam to the UK via France, it said.

Officials said they hoped to start new jobs as cooks and waiters as they sought a better life in the UK.

The newspaper quoted a customs official at the Normandy port as saying, “All were Vietnamese nationals who were traveling with a cargo of specialty Vietnamese food destined for a restaurant in Birmingham.

“They were hidden behind cartons of rice, noodles and sauces.

‘None of them could speak a word of English, even though they confessed to dreaming of a new life in Birmingham.”

The 53-year-old Vietnamese driver denied all knowledge of the group on board but was jailed on Monday for two years by a court in Caen for bringing immigrants into France in inhumane conditions, the report said.

The 13 stowaways, including four adults aged between 29 and 45, and nine aged between 16 and 17, were expected to be released after French officials had established their details.

Three other Vietnamese people had also been caught trying to sneak into the country earlier last week,

The Vietnamese teenage boy and girl and an older man were found in a German HGV stopped in Calais. They were hidden among air­ conditioning parts and are thought to have sneaked on board while the driver was not looking in the south of France, according to the report.

Source: Thanh Nien