The illegal immigrants from Afghanistan were found screaming and banging for help inside a shipping container at Tilbury docks in Essex on Saturday.
The officer leading a homicide inquiry after a man's body was found inside the container along with 34 other people said members of the Sikh community from Tilbury were assisting officers and helping to care for the stowaways.
They were hospitalised and those released from hospital include nine men and eight women aged between 18 and 72, and 13 children.
Essex Police revealed that the man who died after the container was opened is believed to have been in his 40s and a post-mortem examination was carried out yesterday but further tests are set to be undertaken to establish the cause of death.
"We now understand that they are from Afghanistan and are of the Sikh faith. We have had a good deal of help from partners within the local Sikh community in the Tilbury area to ensure that these poor people, who would have been through a horrific ordeal, are supported in terms of their religious and clothing needs," said Superintendent Trevor Roe of Essex Police.
The container was on a P&O-owned commercial vessel, the Norstream, that carries freight between Zeebrugge in Belgium and Tilbury.
Peter De Waele, a spokesperson for the federal police in Belgium, said it appeared to be impossible for the 35 people to be loaded into the container in the time it was at Zeebrugge, a port in the north of the country.
Sikhism is a minority religion in Afghanistan, and the population is limited to a few thousand.
Sikhs in the country have previously complained they are ostracised.
