Dutch police found 16 migrants, including four children, in a lorry that was about to board a ferry at a Dutch port headed for Britain.

The migrants, who were of various nationalities, were found on Wednesday after the driver told border guards at the port of IJmuiden that he had heard sounds in the trailer of the lorry, said a statement by the Dutch royal military police, which oversees borders.

“The truck was carrying car parts, among which the foreigners had hidden themselves,” the police force said in a statement.

The driver, 45, who is from Turkey, has been arrested on suspicion of human trafficking, it said.

The migrants included four children, one woman and 11 men.

The discovery came after 39 people were found dead in a refrigerated truck in Essex last week, again laying bare the the human cost of irregular migration routes to Europe.