Belgian court jails trafficking gang leader for Vietnamese truck deaths

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Belgian police officers stand in a courtroom while a verdict is handed down in the Belgian trial of suspects accused of involvement in a human-trafficking ring, allegedly implicated in the death of 39 Vietnamese migrants on a truck bound for Britain in 2019, in Bruges, Belgium, January 19, 2022. Photo by Reuters/Clement Rossignol

 

The Vietnamese head of a human trafficking gang was sentenced to 15 years in jail by a Belgian court on Wednesday for the manslaughter of 39 compatriots who suffocated in an airtight shipping container smuggled into Britain in 2019.

 

The court in Bruges also ordered Vo Van Hong, 45, to pay a 920,000 euro ($1.04 million) fine and gave prison terms of between 18 months and 10 years to 17 others for their roles in large-scale people smuggling from Vietnam to Britain.

 

The three-judge panel said in a ruling that ran to 234 pages that those convicted had cynically exploited the victims, who were each charged nearly 25,000 euros for the trip to Britain, and treated them as a dehumanized cargo.

 

Full Story: https://e.vnexpress.net/news/news/belgian-court-jails-trafficking-gang-leader-for-vietnamese-truck-deaths-4418514.html

 

-- © Copyright VN Express 2022-01-20

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I watched the British police investigation into that sorry affair, where they found the truck with the bodies in it, and initially the truck driver denied all knowledge they were there, however further investigation (as seen in the documentary) uncovered flaws in his explanation and also uncovered other links, so this is the outcome and it is probably less than they deserve.

 

PS. I think it was on BBC iPlayer if anyone wants to seek it out.