Dutch military police have found 47 illegal migrants hidden in a truck that was about to board a ferry to the United Kingdom, the force says. The men, women and children from various countries were discovered on Tuesday night in the port town of Hook of Holland after a dog trained to sniff out people alerted officers, the Marechaussee force said in a statement. The Dutch truck driver was detained on suspicion of people smuggling and his illicit passengers will be handed over to migration authorities in the Netherlands, according to the statement. Interceptions of such large numbers of migrants are rare in the Netherlands but further along the North Sea coast, thousands of people from around the world travel to northern France each year in hopes of crossing the English Channel to the UK. More than 27,300 have done that this year, a decline on the 46,000 who made the journey in all of 2022. Australian Associated Press