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Afghan Boy Smuggled In Lorry Texts For Help


Map - Afghanistan
Map - Afghanistan

British police have rescued an Afghan boy and 14 adults who were in a sealed lorry, after the young boy texted he was suffocating.

Ahmed, who is aged 6 or 7, used a mobile phone on April 7 given by a British aid worker in a French migrant camp to warn her that they were running out of "oksijan" -- meaning oxygen.

The aid worker was attending a conference in New York at the time and contacted a colleague in Britain who alerted police.

Officers traced the phone and stopped the lorry, taking all those inside into the care of immigration authorities.

Nobody was taken to the hospital.

One man was arrested on suspicion of assisting illegal immigration.

The charity Help Refugees says it gives phones to children to help keep them safe.

Based on reporting by AFP and the BBC
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