An unnamed Syrian refugee told his harrowing tale of escape to the BBC World Service - which included being trapped in a vat of melted chocolate for more than two hours.
The man, who was 25 at the time, said that the escape was his 18th from a refugee camp in Calais. He, along with seven other men, jumped onto a truck aided by a trafficker while the driver slept. "We had no idea what was in the tank, but as soon as he opened it the smell hit us," he told the BBC World Service. "It was chocolate. We were going to sneak into the U.K. in a heated tank of liquid chocolate."
At first, the warm chocolate felt good compared to the freezing weather, but after about 15 minutes, things got too hot and too sticky. Despite being more than 6 feet tall, the man told the BBC World Service, "I couldn't touch the bottom of the tank. We were all holding onto the rim of the hatch with one hand and resting the other on the next man's shoulder. If anyone had lost their grip and gone under, we'd never have been able to get to him out."
"The heat was terrible," he continued. "We had to keep moving our legs to keep from getting totally trapped in the chocolate."
The men, four Egyptians and three Syrians in total, decided they had to get out of the chocolate truck. With all their combined strength, the refugees climbed out of the truck. The last man kept getting sucked back in by the chocolate and eventually was freed - leaving his shoes behind in the melted chocolate.
"We were covered in chocolate from head to toe - our hands, our hair, our eyes - it was everywhere," the man told BBC World Service. "It was good chocolate, though. We were still licking at it on the way home. You could see our footprints stretching out on the road behind us."
