Unless you live under a rock, you would probably have heard about the 39 unfortunate deaths that were discovered in the trailer of a lorry in Essex, southeastern England, on Wednesday, 23 October.
Four people have been arrested with regards to this incident and the 25-year-old lorry driver has been charged on Saturday for manslaughter.
If you only read the headlines and skimmed past it, here’s an article detailing everything we know about this incident so far.
How It Was Discovered
On the early morning of Wednesday, ambulance services found the lorry and its trailer in the industrial park of Grays, east of London.
The lorry reportedly belonged to an Irish citizen in Varna, Bulgaria which is known to be a smuggling route into Europe. Essex police believe that the truck moved from a Belgian port city called Zeebrugge to a small Essex town called Purfleet. The truck then left Purfleet at around 1.05am.
At around 1.40am, ambulance services notified the police that they found bodies in the container.
It was initially believed that the people in the container were Chinese nationals, but was later reported to be most likely Vietnamese nationals instead.
The Conditions Of The Container
According to The Washington Post, the managing director of policy and public affairs at the Road Haulage Association, Rod McKenzie, said that the container “would be completely dark, probably completely airless, no sanitary facilities, possibly freezing temperatures, with the likelihood of death from freezing or suffocation enormous”.
It is believed that the people in the container froze to death as the container was refrigerated.
A few Vietnamese families are now worried that their relatives may be one of those 39 people who were in the container en route to England.
The Victims
Hours before the bodies were found, a 26-year-old Vietnamese woman by the name of Pham Thi Tra My sent her family a text message which read, “I’m sorry Mom. My path to abroad doesn’t succeed. Mom, I love you so much! I’m dying because I can’t breathe.”
Her parents earn roughly £305 (~S$533) a month and they said that they managed to put together £30,000 (~S$52,440) just to pay for her journey to Britain, and they were guaranteed that the route would be safe by the traffickers.
Her parents said that their daughter had a “big heart” and “took the risk” to go to Britain in hopes of relieving the family’s financial debt.
At the end of it all, her father said that he lost both his loved one and his money.
It is believed that she was one of the 39 victims.
A Vietnamese man Nguyen Dinh Gia also reportedly got a call from his son two weeks ago saying that he had plans to go to Britain so that he could hopefully work in a nail salon.
His 20-year-old son Nguyen Dinh Luong previously lived in France and mentioned that it would cost him £11,000 (~S$19,228) to get to Britain. However, Gia received a call a few days ago from a Vietnamese man saying “Please have some sympathy, something unexpected happened.”
He then said that he collapsed to the ground after hearing that because he realised that his son was probably one of the victims who were found dead.
Another one of the victims is suspected to be 19-year-old Anna Bui Thi Nhung. She is also believed to be the youngest victim in this incident.
She reportedly paid the traffickers about £8,000 (~S$13,984) and had hopes of working as a nail technician in the UK.
She wanted to send money home to help ease the financial burden of her family especially since her father passed away two years ago. She hoped that the money would have helped her mother to pay off some debts.
She apparently posted photos of herself in Brussels days before the lorry left, but subsequently told her Facebook friend on Monday that the journey was “not good”.
26-year-old Nguyen Dinh Tu was due to arrive in the UK and was expected to be picked up by his relatives, but he is reported to be missing. He was originally from the Do Thanh, in the Nghe An province and was previously part of the military before he started doing illegal work in Germany and Romania.
His wife helped him to raise £11,000 (~S$19,228) so that he could pay for his journey to Britain but his wife hasn’t heard from him since. According to Reuters, she said that she has absolutely no hope and energy to do anything. She also added that she now has a big debt to pay.
His father also mentioned that the last time they were in contact was on Tuesday which was a day before the incident was discovered.
DNA tests are currently being done in Vietnam as an attempt to identify the dead and offer catharsis to their families.
Investigations
25-year-old Maurice Robinson, the driver of the lorry was arrested and is currently charged with 39 counts of manslaughter, conspiracy to traffic people, conspiracy to assist unlawful immigration and money laundering.
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According to The Washington Post, the police also arrested three others “on suspicion of conspiracy to traffic people and on suspicion of 39 counts of manslaughter” on Friday. The three are said to be a 38-year-old man and woman from Warrington, England, as well as a 48-year-old man from Northern Ireland.
Investigations are still ongoing about how the victims died and whether any organised crime groups had anything to do with the matter.
Both the Vietnamese and Essex police are working together and they are also investigating claims that there may be two other lorries that are part of a convoy along with this lorry to traffick a total of 100 people.
Human Trafficking
Unfortunately, even though there have been laws to crack down on such cases, human trafficking still exists. Many of the victims were reportedly hopeful to enter Britain so that they could earn more money and ease the financial burden they have back at home.
Many of them paid tens and thousands of dollars just for this opportunity. They risk their lives and end up losing it because they believed the traffickers who assured them that it would be a safe way to enter.
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We hope that the victims will rest in peace and that justice will be brought to them.
