Five gang members have been jailed after 35 people were smuggled across the Channel inside what authorities describe as "coffin-like hides".

The victims of the smugglers, including children as young as two and a disabled person, were sealed inside the makeshift containers made from wardrobes and carried in vans via ports including Dover and Portsmouth.

Once screwed into purpose-built hides, which were surrounded by other items of furniture in the rear of the vehicles, they had no way of escaping without the assistance of the organised crime group.

The wardrobes were used to conceal up to seven people on each journey to the UK.

According to the Home Office, one group was discovered while shouting for their lives at the point of being loaded onto a recovery vehicle.

A court heard that between August and October 2019, Paramjeet Singh Baweja, 50, and Viljit Singh Khurana, 45, organised the smuggling of 35 Afghans into the UK through six separate trips.

Following a two-year investigation by Home Office's Criminal Financial Investigations (CFI) unit, Baweja and Khurana pleaded guilty to the purchasing of vans and furniture, communicating between the 'minders', the migrants and Romanian drivers, and paying money to the ‘minders’.

The 'minders' were found to be Harmohan Singh, 41, and Manmohan Singh Wadhwa, 57. Both admitted to escorting the vans and drivers during the facilitation events and providing progress updates to other members of the crime group and drivers.

Dumitru Bacelan, 29, a Romanian national believed to be of higher 'rank' in the gang than the minders and drivers, was involved in the recruitment and the organising of drivers.

All five pleaded guilty to involvement in the scheme, and at Reading Crown Court yesterday they were sentenced to jail terms totalling 24 years and two months between them.

Minister for Justice and Tackling Illegal Migration, Tom Pursglove MP, said: "These life-threatening attempts to smuggle people, including very young children, into the UK in the back of vehicles with room to barely move or breathe, is quite frankly, horrific.

"I would like to praise the officers on the case in their efforts working round the clock to prevent this illegal activity which put people’s lives in extreme danger."