6 migrants rescued from refrigerated truck after calling BBC

Six migrant women trapped inside a refrigerated truck as part of a suspected human trafficking operation were rescued after calling a BBC reporter begging for help.

The four Vietnamese and two Iraqi nationals spent at least 10 hours locked inside the truck carrying bananas in northern France, believing it was en route to the UK or Ireland, the BBC reported Thursday.

When the migrants realized that the truck was heading south, they started to panic in the cold and cramped space.

One of them managed to contact someone on the outside, who helped put her in touch Wednesday with BBC reporter Khue Luu Binh in London.

The desperate woman texted Binh: “It’s so cold, it [the air conditioner] keeps blowing.”

The migrant was able to send the truck’s GPS location and short videos showing the women sitting on the floor, wedged between boxes of bananas stacked up to the roof, and struggling to breathe, according to the BBC.

One of the women was heard saying in English: “I can’t breathe.”

Racing against time, Binh reached out to colleagues from BBC News and reporters working in France. One of them contacted a police station closest to the location of the truck in the Rhone region and passed along the coordinates of the vehicle.

Police quickly tracked down the truck with the migrants inside and pulled it over on a highway near Lyon.

The truck with Irish tags originated from Lithuania, French prosecutor Laetitia Francart in Villefranche-sur-Saône reported.

Authorities arrested the driver and launched an investigation into a suspected human trafficking operation, the reports said.

Thousands of migrants attempt to cross from northern France into the UK every year, either by hiding in trucks or onboard small boats across the English Channel.