A GROUP of 19 refugees, including three young children, has arrived at a North-East port, a fortnight after 27 people illegally entered the country.

The latest stowaways, all thought to be Turkish Kurds, arrived in Teesport, Middlesbrough, on a P&O North Sea freight ferry from Zeebrugge, in Belgium, at about 1.30pm yesterday.

Four adults and two of the three children were taken to Middlesbrough General Hospital with dehydration.The group's arrival was two weeks to the day after the same ferry carried another group of refugees from Zeebrugge.

A few hours later, they were joined by several more refugees on a ferry from Rotterdam, in Holland.

The refugees were concealed in containers and avoided detection, despite a system of checks by P&O.

Under Home Office rules, the firm could be liable for a £2,000 fine for each refugee if found in breach of strict carrier's regulations, but last night no one was able to confirm if an fee would be levied.

Pete Widlinski, a team leader with the North of England Refugee Service, which is arranging emergency accommodation for the latest stowaways, said the number arriving in the region could rise.

"What might be happening is that as they are tightening up security at the passenger ports in the South-East, people are having to find other routes in," he said.

"But I still don't think it is going to be a major problem."

Mark Evans, a freight manager for P&O North Sea ferries admitted the firm was having a bad month.

"We've had a couple of incidents that we haven't liked to see," he said.

But he added: "We are doing everything we reasonably can and for every one refugee that we carry, we probably stop about ten."

Mr Evans said it was too early to determine what went wrong this time.

He said: "If immigration decides we are negligent, there's a possibility of a fine."