Gardai and immigration officials in Cork were last night seeking to determine the identity of six people claiming to be Kosovars, who had stowed away on the Irish Ferries vessel, mv Venus, which arrived in the city's lower harbour early yesterday morning.
The five men and one woman were said not to have been in good health and had apparently made their way from Eastern Europe overland to the French port of St Malo, where they boarded the ferry without being noticed.
On arrival at Ringaskiddy yesterday, they immediately gave themselves up to the port authorities and local gardai and asked for asylum. They had been hiding in an empty cattletruck on board the ferry.
According to one Garda source, there was a question mark about the nationality of the stowaways and there is a suspicion that they could be from Romania.
After their discovery, they were taken to the South Infirmary hospital in Cork for observation and they are now in the care of the Southern Health Board.