Vietnamese may be among UK truck dead as police make three more arrests

[rooster59]

Vietnamese may be among UK truck dead as police make three more arrests

By Peter Nicholls

 

A vehicle of a funeral home, escorted by police, leaves the Port of Tilbury where the bodies of immigrants are being held by authorities, following their discovery in a lorry in Essex on Wednesday morning, in Tilbury, Essex, Britain October 25, 2019. REUTERS/Peter Nicholls

 

GRAYS, England (Reuters) - Police investigating the deaths of 39 people in a truck near London said they had arrested three more suspects on Friday on suspicion of human trafficking amid signs that some of the dead may be Vietnamese.

 

As forensic experts began the process of identifying the victims, the Vietnamese embassy in London said families from the southeast Asian country had got in touch about missing relatives. There were growing concerns at least 10 of the victims could have been from Vietnam.

 

Hoa Nghiem from Human Rights Space, a civic network based in Vietnam, said that Pham Thi Tra My, 26, had sent a text message to her mother saying she could not breathe at about the time the truck container was en route from Belgium to Britain.

 

"I’m sorry, mum and dad. My path abroad was not a success. I love you both so much. I can’t breathe. I'm from Nghen Town, Can Loc District, Ha Tinh, Vietnam ... I am sorry, Mom," the message said, according to Hoa who told Reuters it had come from Tra My's family.

 

She said Tra My had gone to China and was planning to reach England via France and that the organisation was getting more alerts about possible Vietnamese victims in the refrigerated trunk, which was found in the early hours of Wednesday.

 

Police have said they believe the dead were Chinese but Beijing said the nationalities had not yet been confirmed.

Chinese and Vietnamese officials are now both working closely with British police, their respective embassies said.

 

"We owe it to those who have died to get this investigation right and speculation is not helpful," Essex Police's Deputy Chief Constable Pippa Mills told reporters. "It may in fact hinder our investigation and its progress."

 

She said they would not give any more details about the identities or nationalities of the victims until the formal identification process was complete.

 

Her officers were still questioning the 25-year-old truck driver on suspicion of murder following the discovery of the bodies in the back of his truck.

 

He has not been formally identified but a source familiar with the investigation named him as Mo Robinson from the Portadown area of Northern Ireland.

 

On Friday, police also arrested a man and woman, both aged 38, in Warrington, northwest England, and a 48-year-old man from Northern Ireland at London's Stansted Airport. They are suspected of conspiracy to traffic people and manslaughter.

 

The victims - 31 men and eight women - are being moved to a hospital mortuary from a secure location at docks near the industrial estate in Grays about 20 miles (30 km) east of London where the bodies were found.

 

Post-mortem examinations were beginning to determine how exactly they died while the lengthy process of identifying the deceased was underway.

 

VietHome, an organisation for the Vietnamese community in Britain, said it had received news from 10 families that their relatives were missing.

 

For years, illegal immigrants have attempted to reach Britain stowed away in trucks, often from the European mainland. In 2000, 58 Chinese were found dead in a tomato truck at the port of Dover.

 

BRITAIN 'HAS NOT FULFILLED RESPONSIBILITY'

 

"We hope that the British side can as soon as possible confirm and verify the identities of the victims, ascertain what happened and severely punish criminals involved in the case," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying told a daily news briefing.

 

China's Global Times, which is published by the ruling Communist Party's official People's Daily, said in a Friday editorial that Britain should bear some responsibility for the deaths.

 

"It is clear that Britain and relevant European countries have not fulfilled their responsibility to protect these people from such a death," the widely read tabloid said.

 

It added that Britain appeared not to have learned its lesson from the Dover incident two decades ago.

 

The police investigation is focussed on the movement of the trailer prior to its arrival at Purfleet docks near Grays little more than an hour before the bodies were found, and on who was behind the suspected human trafficking.

 

Irish company Global Trailer Rentals said it owned the trailer and had rented it out on Oct. 15. The firm said it was unaware of what it was to be used for.

 

The refrigeration unit had travelled to Britain from Zeebrugge in Belgium and the town's chairman, Dirk de Fauw, said he believed the victims died in the trailer before it arrived in the Belgian port.

 

The Times newspaper reported that GPS data showed the container had arrived at the Belgian port at 2.49 p.m. local time on Tuesday before later making the 10-hour sea crossing to Britain.

 

Police said the cab unit of the truck was driven over from Dublin on Sunday, crossing the Irish Sea by ship and entering Britain in North Wales. It picked up the trailer in Purfleet shortly after midnight on Wednesday.

 

Figures last year from the UK's National Crime Agency, which targets serious and organised crime, showed Vietnamese nationals were the third most commonly reported victims of modern slavery or trafficking in Britain, although it did not have statistics about those entering the country illegally.

 

(Additional reporting by Ben Blanchard in Beijing and James Pearson, Khanh Vu and Phuong Nguyen in Hanoi; Writing by Michael Holden; Editing by Guy Faulconbridge, Frances Kerry, Hugh Lawson and Philippa Fletcher)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2019-10-26

Follow Thaivisa on LINE for breaking Thailand news and visa info

 

[Geoffggi]

2 hours ago, rooster59 said:

China's Global Times, which is published by the ruling Communist Party's official People's Daily, said in a Friday editorial that Britain should bear some responsibility for the deaths.

How about China taking responsibility for their people wanting to escape China....

[Enoon]

 

Somebody said "they look like Chinese", so that's what they "became" before proper ID had been made?

 

Possibly none of them are?

 

 

[cnx101]

16 minutes ago, Enoon said:

 

Somebody said "they look like Chinese", so that's what they "became" before proper ID had been made?

 

Possibly none of them are?

 

 

I’ve had an update from Vietnamese friend who said their all Vietnamese,

from North Vietnam, non are Chinese

[MartinL]

6 minutes ago, cnx101 said:

I’ve had an update from Vietnamese friend who said their all Vietnamese,

from North Vietnam, non are Chinese

If it's true that the dead aren't Chinese, then the good news is that the hypocritical Chinese can butt out of this matter and leave it to UK and Vietnam. 

[overherebc]

11 minutes ago, MartinL said:

If it's true that the dead aren't Chinese, then the good news is that the hypocritical Chinese can butt out of this matter and leave it to UK and Vietnam. 

The young woman had first travelled to China from Hanoi and from there was flown to the EU

( France? ) 

It will take a while for positive ID of the others.

In the meantime China should zip it and offer help.

Edited October 26, 2019 by overherebc

[hotchilli]

5 hours ago, rooster59 said:

China's Global Times, which is published by the ruling Communist Party's official People's Daily, said in a Friday editorial that Britain should bear some responsibility for the deaths.

England was the final port of call where the bodies were found, albeit too late.
Try blaming all the security checks between Belgium & England.

Or even Chinese for trying to illegally enter England.

[notasmartassknowitallfarag]

Heartbreaking story with the text message from the young Vietnamese girl. 

 

There are reports they paid 20,000 pounds to get there. That seems like a huge amount of money to have and spend in Vietnam if there were no other options but to be so desperate. 

 

It would easily take about 3 years to save that up on a low salary in the UK and that would be living a  seriously frugal life. 

 

RIP to all of them, what a horrible last few moments they must have encountered. 

[sawadeeken]

2 hours ago, MartinL said:

If it's true that the dead aren't Chinese, then the good news is that the hypocritical Chinese can butt out of this matter and leave it to UK and Vietnam. 

Yes........ So many Chinese ancestory in Vietnam...... It is sooooooo highly likely they are Viet and not Chinese.............

[tonbridgebrit]

The Vietnamese, they're born survivors. These people know and understand sufferring and hardship. Loads of them drowned when leaving Vietnam for Hong Kong, yes, the boat people.

[tonbridgebrit]

3 hours ago, MartinL said:

If it's true that the dead aren't Chinese, then the good news is that the hypocritical Chinese can butt out of this matter and leave it to UK and Vietnam. 

What are you trying to say ?  China is involved because the media said that the 39 dead are Chinese. Why claim that the Chinese are hypocritical ?

Yes, this is a matter for Britain and Vietnam. And below is a photo of Pham Thi Tra My. She was 26 years old. She looks like the type of person working at the local Chinese Take-away.




Do we all agree, women like her should be allowed to come into Britain. Actually, the more of them, the better.

Edited October 26, 2019 by tonbridgebrit

[tonbridgebrit]

3 hours ago, cnx101 said:

I’ve had an update from Vietnamese friend who said their all Vietnamese,

from North Vietnam, non are Chinese

Let's accept, whether they're Chinese or Vietnamese, they're people.

[NanLaew]

5 hours ago, Geoffggi said:

How about China taking responsibility for their people wanting to escape China....

China's involvement is turning a blind eye to fake Chinese passports these Vietnamese hold when they start their trip to the west. There's no telling right now if this is a Chinese-operated smuggling outfit or Vietnamese but with the Chinese taking a very prickly, public line when it comes to who's responsible, my money's on the former.

 

3 hours ago, Enoon said:

 

Somebody said "they look like Chinese", so that's what they "became" before proper ID had been made?

 

Possibly none of them are?

Yes, I imagine some relatively untraveled local policeman or paramedic may said they "look like Chinese" whereupon a police press officer with more sense would have modified that to "of East Asian origin" before feeding the media. After all, they do all 'look the same' unless you've traveled a bit. However, if they all had Chinese passports in their possession, then there's no real blaming the Essex police on that call.

 

I was reading related news stories of how female Vietnamese illegals are channeled into the UK community via high street nail shops. This parallels what I witnessed in the US Gulf states over 20 years ago, except the nail salons were found in the smaller shopping malls over there.

 

I note that the registered owner of the tractor, an Irish woman married and living with her family in Warrington reportedly also has a beauty salon while her husband runs the 'haulage business'. I wonder if her shop does nails as well? Not sure if he's in the Eddie Stobart league but with a pair of Range Rover Discovery's (with matching personalized plates) and a white Chevy Corvette in the driveway of the new, bigger home that they fairly recently moved into and reports of frequent overseas family holidays, maybe the small fleet trucking business really is quite lucrative?

Edited October 26, 2019 by NanLaew

[Scot123]

What a sad story and feel sympathy for their families at the loss and anger at those that facilitated this atrocity but let us not forget they all made themselves criminals by knowingly and purposely trying to enter the UK as ILLEGAL immigrants. I am sorry if that sounds hard but it is true. Many Chinese/Asian's come to the UK the correct way and become very valid members of the community, study hard, work hard and get valid jobs so obtaining legal work permits and many settle here and marry. Sorry for being so cold. 

Edited October 26, 2019 by Scot123
Miss out Asian.

[evadgib]

5 hours ago, NanLaew said:

China's involvement is turning a blind eye to fake Chinese passports these Vietnamese hold when they start their trip to the west. There's no telling right now if this is a Chinese-operated smuggling outfit or Vietnamese but with the Chinese taking a very prickly, public line when it comes to who's responsible, my money's on the former.

 

Yes, I imagine some relatively untraveled local policeman or paramedic may said they "look like Chinese" whereupon a police press officer with more sense would have modified that to "of East Asian origin" before feeding the media. After all, they do all 'look the same' unless you've traveled a bit. However, if they all had Chinese passports in their possession, then there's no real blaming the Essex police on that call.

 

I was reading related news stories of how female Vietnamese illegals are channeled into the UK community via high street nail shops. This parallels what I witnessed in the US Gulf states over 20 years ago, except the nail salons were found in the smaller shopping malls over there.

 

I note that the registered owner of the tractor, an Irish woman married and living with her family in Warrington reportedly also has a beauty salon while her husband runs the 'haulage business'. I wonder if her shop does nails as well? Not sure if he's in the Eddie Stobart league but with a pair of Range Rover Discovery's (with matching personalized plates) and a white Chevy Corvette in the driveway of the new, bigger home that they fairly recently moved into and reports of frequent overseas family holidays, maybe the small fleet trucking business really is quite lucrative?

From the onset my suspicion has been that dissident Irish republicans are likely involved at the receiving end.

 

As Adams once said "they haven't gone away you know".

[tonbridgebrit]

Attention is no longer being put onto the issue of the 39 people who died in that lorry.



https://uk.news.yahoo.com/essex-lorry-deaths-19-old-110556190.html

From the above article from yahoo news.  Bui Thi Nhung was a girl who was 19, and she paid about ten thousand US dollars to be smuggled into Britain. This girl wanted to work in Britain, and send money to Vietnam, to her family.



And above, is a photo of her. What on earth is going on ?  A 19 year-old girl pays ten thousand dollars, big money as far as her family is concerned, to be smuggled into Britain. She should have been allowed to enter into Britain for free, with a work permit. It's wrong when our government refuses to allow girls like Bui Thi Nhung to enter Britain.

Edited October 29, 2019 by tonbridgebrit
spelling mistake