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Border police discovered 25 would-be illegal immigrants crammed between bottles of wine in the back of a lorry as they attempted to enter the UK.
The group of men - from Afghanistan, Syria and Iran - were discovered in Dunkirk by the UK Border Agency.
The stowaways were discovered on Friday by a sniffer dog, a springer spaniel, called Louis, who detected the scent of humans and alerted his handler, while checking vehicles before they boarded ferries bound for Dover.
Officers then opened the Czech lorry and found the foreign nationals - including a father and his sons, aged seven and nine - concealed among bottles of wine and olive oil.
The consignment was due to be delivered to a depot in Weston-super-Mare.
The stowaways were all handed over to the French border police and the driver of the vehicle and the haulage company now face a potential fine if they are unable to prove they took steps to secure the vehicle.
Tom Dowdall, the UK Border Agency's director for European operations, said: "This is exactly why we base so many of our staff in France and Belgium - to stop illegal immigrants before they can reach the UK.
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"As well as using sniffer dogs, our staff also have heartbeat detectors and carbon dioxide probes to detect the presence of people hiding in lorries."
Throughout 2009, more than 29,000 individual attempts to cross the Channel illegally were prevented, the UK Border Agency said.
Louis is one of over 100 sniffer dogs used by the UK Border Agency to protect the border and enforce the law.
