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VIETNAM-BRITAIN-BODIES-MIGRATION
Driver charged as more Vietnamese feared among 39 UK truck victims
LONDON, Oct 27, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – British police investigating the deaths of
39 people in a refrigerated truck charged the driver on Saturday with
manslaughter and people trafficking, as families in Vietnam expressed fear
their loved ones were among the dead.
Maurice Robinson was arrested shortly after the bodies of eight women and
31 men were discovered in the truck in an industrial zone in Grays in Essex,
south-east England.
The 25-year-old from Northern Ireland was “charged with 39 counts of
manslaughter, conspiracy to traffic people, conspiracy to assist unlawful
immigration and money laundering”, Essex police said.
Three more people are in custody in Britain over the investigation, the
country’s largest murder probe since the 2005 London suicide bombings.
A Northern Irish man was also arrested in Dublin on Saturday.
Police initially said the victims — believed to have arrived on a ferry
from the Belgian port of Zeebrugge — were Chinese, but retracted this and
now many are feared to be Vietnamese.
Vietnam’s ambassador, Tran Ngoc An, visited police investigating the case
on Saturday and also spoke on the phone to British interior minister Priti
Patel, the embassy said.
In Vietnam, several families told AFP Saturday that their relatives had
gone missing on route to Britain, a prime destination for migrants seeking
better lives abroad.
All the families come from impoverished and remote corners of central
Vietnam, a hotspot for people willing to embark on dangerous journeys in the
hope of striking it rich abroad.
Many are smuggled illegally through Russia or China, often owing tens of
thousands of dollars to their traffickers and carrying falsified documents,
and end up working off the books on cannabis farms or in nail salons.
– ‘Fell to the ground’ –
In central Ha Tinh province, the father of 20-year-old Nguyen Dinh Luong
said he received a call from a Vietnamese man in the UK this week saying his
son had died en route to Britain. “I fell to the ground when I heard that,”
Nguyen Dinh Gia said. “It seemed that he was in the truck with the accident,
all of them dead.”
Britain-based community group VietHome said it had received “photos of
nearly 20 people reported missing, age 15-45” from Vietnam.
Families of missing Vietnamese migrants on Saturday held vigil and set up
makeshift altars in their homes in central Nghe An province, where many of
the suspected victims came from, praying for news from missing relatives.
The family of a 26-year-old Vietnamese woman, Pham Thi Tra My, said on
Friday they received a chilling text message from her in the hours before she
is believed to have died.
“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,” she said in the message confirmed
by her brother Pham Manh Cuong.
Their home province of Ha Tinh was devastated by a massive fish kill in
2016 when a Taiwanese steel firm dumped toxic wasted into the ocean.
Migrants can pay smugglers up to $40,000 for the dangerous journey, an
enormous sum in Vietnam, where the annual per capital income is around
$2,400, according to the World Bank.
– ‘Vulnerable people’ –
The truck’s driver is due in court on Monday.
Among the suspects still in custody is a 38-year-old woman reported to be
the registered owner of the truck, and her husband, also 38. They denied any
involvement, according to media reports.
“We’ve got to be realistic. We know that… we have people coming into the
country, either being trafficked or as asylum seekers,” British police
Detective Chief Inspector Martin Pasmore told reporters earlier Saturday.
“It must be clear that criminals — and that’s what we’re dealing with,
criminals, murderers — are taking more and more chances with these
vulnerable people,” he added.
He appealed to the Vietnamese community in Britain for information, saying
his force would take no action against anyone here illegally who came forward
to claim a friend or relative.
Pasmore said he had discussed with Vietnam’s ambassador how to fast-track
the process of fingerprint identification and DNA testing, but said
identification would take time.
BSS/AFP/MSY/0939 hrs