A British national driving a small truck with 18 migrants inside, five of them children, has been arrested near the northern French port city of Dunkirk.

Police said the man was arrested for suspected smuggling.

The truck, bearing a British number plate, carried Syrian and Iraqi migrants. It was intercepted near a refugee camp in Grande-Synthe outside Dunkirk.

The camp was set up by Doctors Without Borders this year to replace a makeshift camp nearby that was a haven for smugglers.

A police official says 36 suspected smugglers have been arrested in the Dunkirk region since the beginning of the year.

Like migrants in nearby Calais, those in Dunkirk travel to northern France in a bid to get into Britain.

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