Man arrested over Rosslare migrant discovery released without charge

A man who was arrested by police investigating the discovery of 14 migrants in a refrigerated container at an Irish port has been released without charge.

Nine men, three women and two young girls, were discovered in the container at Rosslare Europort on January 8.

At the time, senior Irish Government figures expressed “relief” that there were no fatalities among the migrants.

The Irish police service An Garda Siochana launched an investigation to determine whether the incident was an act of people smuggling for illegal entry or human trafficking, with the latter involving the exploitation of victims for an illegal purpose.

Gardai said this could involve labour exploitation, sexual exploitation, forced criminality or organ harvesting.

The Garda National Immigration Bureau and local gardai in the Wexford area are working with their counterparts in Europol on the case, and have asked anyone with information, “no matter how insignificant”, to get in contact.

The container originated south of Paris, France and travelled to Rosslare from Zeebrugge, Belgium.

A man, aged in his 30s, was arrested by Irish police at Rosslare on Wednesday on suspicion of an alleged offence under the Criminal Justice (Smuggling of Persons) Act, 2021.

He was released without charge on Thursday and a file is being prepared for the Director of Public Prosecutions.

Investigations are ongoing.