Moment two Vietnamese girls are discovered by Border Force officials after being hidden inside concealed lorry compartment

By MARK DUELL, DEPUTY CHIEF REPORTER (DIGITAL) Published: 15:51, 13 July 2026 | Updated: 15:56, 13 July 2026 This is the moment two Vietnamese 16-year-old girls were freed from a lorry before Border Force officers revealed how they were concealed inside by the driver. The children were discovered in the cab and taken into the care of social services after the vehicle was scanned upon arrival at the Port of Dover in Kent. The driver was arrested and officers looked through the lorry, finding that a foam mattress had been cut to hide the two girls who were sat at opposite ends. A compartment was then pushed up within the cab to conceal the girls, who were positioned 'top to tail', in an attempt to avoid them being seen by inspectors. But the latest episode of 'Dover 24/7: Britain's Busiest Port', which airs on Channel 4 at 8pm tonight, reveals how they were discovered when going through a scanner. In an exclusive clip issued to the Daily Mail today, Border Force officer Robin is seen searching the cab for evidence against the driver when he spots the concealment. He says: 'I'll lower this down. You can see that the driver has cut the mattress and then the two girls were sat, one this end, one that end, top to tail like that. 'That's what they done, then pushed this up, covered them up, so then if you were just talking to a driver without going to a scanner, you wouldn't have seen that. Two Vietnamese 16-year-old girls are freed from a lorry by Border Force officers in Dover The children are taken into the care of social services after being discovered in the cab Border Force officers look through the lorry to see how the girls were concealed in the cab 'I've seen concealments cut out like this quite a few times recently and it's normally Vietnamese young ladies like this.' Border Force later confirmed that the driver, who was not named, pleaded guilty to offences and was sentenced to 30 months in prison. A record 7,028 children were identified as potential victims of modern slavery and human trafficking in the UK last year. Many of them are exploited for sex trafficking and labour. The National Crime Agency has warned gangs are actively recruiting lorry drivers to smuggle migrants both into and out of the UK. Officials have reported a spike in arrests in Kent of drivers boarding trains or ferries to France while illegally transporting people. Robin adds: 'It upsets me a little bit because obviously they're 16-year-olds, that's what they said, they're young, they're from Vietnam, don't know what's happened to them. 'We don't know if they've been brought over for sex trafficking or anything like that, which proper upsets me - I've got two young daughters myself.' It comes after a pair of people smugglers who arranged the transport of Vietnamese migrants to the UK hidden in lorries were sentenced last Friday. Duc Quang Ta, 36, from Reading, and Sarfaraz Sardarzehi, 58, from London, were both arrested after vehicle stops in 2020, with three migrants discovered in Sardarzehi's car. Border Force officer Robin pulls down a compartment in the cab where the girls were hidden Robin explains the girls were positioned 'top to tail' in an attempt to avoid them being seen The crime group they belonged to hid migrants in the backs of lorries which arrived in the UK via ferries or the Channel Tunnel. Once in Britain, the migrants were quickly moved away from the south coast by car. Ta and Sardarzehi were found guilty of people smuggling and money laundering at Birmingham Crown Court in February. Duc was given eight years in jail, while Sardarzehi received a two-year prison sentence suspended for 21 months. The latest episode of the documentary comes after the last one showed a Ukrainian driver being found with £100,000 worth of parts from eight high-end stolen cars that were being smuggled out of Britain for sale on the black market. Pieces from a Jaguar XE sports car and four Land Rover Discovery vehicles were found in the rundown delivery van in a search by police at Dover.  An earlier episode showed a migrant being caught trying to smuggle himself out of Britain in the back of a lorry, pleading to police: 'I just want to go back to France!' The man was spotted jumping out of a lorry while it was being searched by officers at the Port of Dover ferry terminal before running towards the exit. 'Dover 24/7: Britain's Busiest Port' continues on Channel 4 tonight at 8pm