FIVE MEN, BELIEVED to be illegal immigrants, were detained at Dublin Port on Monday.

Security officers for the port found the men after they got reports of the men leaving a secure compound from Irish Ferries.

“Five males were seen jumping out of a trailer coming out of the Epsilon, which arrived into Dublin from Cherbourg,” Thomas Kavanagh, security manager at Dublin Port said.

Kavanagh believes the men are from Afghanistan,after he spoke to them. Three of them said they were from Kabul. He said:

They were young, probably between 18-24 years old and they spoke little English.

They were cold, they were tired, they were hungry and thirsty. One of the security officers went off to get them some water and the gardaí came and they took them away.

He said that Irish Ferries security spotted the five men, who then informed port security at approximately 2.30pm after they had climbed out of the compound.

Port security were able to locate the men through their CCTV system and their officers on the ground intercepted them at 2.50pm.

Kavanagh said: “Within half an hour from the first report we intercepted them on the foreshore. They came back onto Tolka Quay Road, where they stopped once they saw us again.”

Garda immigration arrived on scene, with the assistance of Store Street, and removed the men for questioning.