UK - 39 bodies found in lorry, Essex, 23 October 2019

[dotr]

Based on this, I think "our" migrants removed clothing because of hypERthermia.

Not as likely, but wondering if they also tried initially to warm up through skin to skin contact. imo.

 

[starcrossx]

The conditions the 39 victims suffered inside the Essex lorry

This is not nice reading. Major points copied:

Ambulance crew and police noted there was no cargo in the lorry apart from the tragic victims.

The source said the fact the bodies appeared to be in early stage rigor mortis shows most, if not all, were dead when Robinson picked up the container at Purfleet at 1.05am.

Belfast Live can reveal the container with the migrants travelled as an unaccompanied trailer on the ship MV Clementine from Zeebrugge sailing at 3pm on Tuesday. It docked at 12.30am on Wednesday at Purfleet. Robinson picked up the trailer 35 minutes later.

This is why I think the driver opened the trailer. We don't know whether he thought there was cargo on board or it was an empty trailer but either way nothing should have been moving about back there. I think he has sensed movement when he has been driving round corners, roundabouts and braking and either thought his cargo was insecure or if it was supposed to be empty, knew something was wrong and investigated.

Also does NI have different press regulations to mainland UK? They seem to be printing things that mainland UK won't.

 

[azure]

This is why I think the driver opened the trailer. We don't know whether he thought there was cargo on board or it was an empty trailer but either way nothing should have been moving about back there. I think he has sensed movement when he has been driving round corners, roundabouts and braking and either thought his cargo was insecure or if it was supposed to be empty, knew something was wrong and investigated.

Also does NI have different press regulations to mainland UK? They seem to be printing things that mainland UK won't.

Sadly, from LE accounts, I think that everyone in the lorry was dead or unconscious upon arrival to the UK. A LACK of response or movement may have caused him to break the seal, however.

 

[Coach]

At what point will the other three people who have been arrested be named? I think it said that a 48 yr old from Northern Ireland (NI) was arrested at Stansted. I also read online in the news that the parents of the driver were due to go from NI to England to support their son.

 

[HayLouise]

At what point will the other three people who have been arrested be named? I think it said that a 48 yr old from Northern Ireland (NI) was arrested at Stansted. I also read online in the news that the parents of the driver were due to go from NI to England to support their son.

Three have been named in media, the latest arrest (48 yo at Stansted) has not been named & yes parents have flown over.

 

[Ched]

Can anyone see the court listings for today please?

 

[Ched]

Essex truck deaths: Parents of Vietnamese woman feared dead say they were told it was a 'safe route' - CNN

 

[HayLouise]

26 October 2019:

Transport to freedom became their tomb - Essex tragedy should prompt reflection on how we deal with refugees

 

[HayLouise]

Police are continuing to question four suspects over the deaths of 39 people whose bodies were found inside a lorry in Essex. We'll hear from Alice Rosenthal and @nandosigona next #bbcgms

BBCScot WeekendGMS on Twitter

 

[HayLouise]

26 October 2019:

What we know so far about the Essex lorry deaths

 

[Ched]

Authorities at the Zeebrugge port have said refrigerated trailers are "completely sealed" in the port so it was unlikely the victims were loaded into the container there, adding that the container may not have been checked before leaving Belgium.

- If the fridge on the hermetically-sealed trailer was not running there would be no air coming in, suffocating people inside, according to Richard Burnett, chief executive of the Road Haulage Association.
What we know so far about the Essex lorry deaths

 

[HongKongPhooey]

The local hair salon belonging to the two people arrested is also being searched currently, right now, 0045am Sat 26 Oct, that's about a 5 minute drive away from their house.

My daughter has her hair done there once a month at least. She knows the female arrested quite well. Very bizarre and the press are like fleas now round here.

It's looking like these will be charged with offences related to the bodies based on closed very local opinion. Personally I've no idea of them.

PS - this isn't me sleuthing, it's right on my doorstep all of a sudden. I'm not sure I can answer questions

Thanks for local updates, all v interesting. Does the hairdresser have a nail bar do you know? Or links to one?

 

[HayLouise]

26 October 2019:


Essex lorry deaths: Route used to traffic migrants "bears the hallmarks of a loyalist heroin-smuggling route"

"That route and the network involved bears the hallmarks of a loyalist heroin-smuggling route."

The route used to traffic 39 migrants from Zeebrugge to Purfleet bears close similarities to a heroin-smuggling route used by Northern Ireland paramilitary gangs, it has been claimed.

An underworld source told Belfast Live: “That route and the network involved bears the hallmarks of a loyalist heroin-smuggling route.

“But there are also links to well-known republican families who these days are very active in smuggling.”

Route used to traffic 39 migrants similar to network used by Irish drug gangs

 

[alice500]

Timeline of trailer movement;

1. Sources say the GPS data shows it left Monaghan in the Republic of Ireland on 15 October before crossing over to Northern Ireland and then returning south to Dublin
2. From Dublin, it crossed over to Holyhead in Wales overnight on 16 October
3. That evening, it travelled to continental Europe from Dover to Calais in France
4. Between 17 and 22 October, it moved between various cities in Belgium and France, including Dunkirk, Bruges and Lille
5. On 22 October, it made its final crossing from Zeebrugge to Purfleet

Essex lorry deaths: What we know

So it is still not clear who delivered the container to Zeebrugge? And who presumably shut the doors? And whether it was in fact "sealed" in the sense of having an official tag installed , rather than being sealed like a fridge door?

 

[HayLouise]

Police are understood to be investigating links to two crime families with paramilitary ties north and south of the Irish border who are notorious for smuggling alcohol and tobacco.

[...]

Police have arrested driver Mo Robinson of Portadown, Northern Ireland on suspicion of murder and a second 48-year-old Northern Ireland man was arrested at Stanstead Airport on Friday.

Route used to traffic 39 migrants similar to network used by Irish drug gangs

 

[alice500]

My hubby , a lorry driver has just told me exactly this . If paperwork is used (instead of incab tablets being favoured increasingly ) this is passed over when handover is made , seal number being checked to alert you to any tampering. Whoever is in possession of that vehicle is responsible for seal being intact and numbers on seal matching accompanying paperwork . PW would be needed at various stages of journey so it makes no sense to be inside doors

Technical question ..... Is an empty container "sealed" with an official tag ?

 

[HayLouise]

Police continue to question four suspects over the deaths of 39 people in the back of a lorry in Essex.

A group that represents Vietnamese people in the UK says they've been given photos of nearly 20 people-aged between 15 and 45-who've been reported missing by their families.

Essex News on Twitter

 

[HayLouise]

25 October 2019:


Essex lorry deaths: The Vietnamese risking it all to get to the UK

An hour's drive inland from the French coast, a dozen Vietnamese men nurse tea over a smoking campfire, as they wait for a phone call from the man they call "the boss". An Afghan man, they say, who opens trailers in the lorry-park nearby and shuts them inside.

Duc paid €30,000 ($33,200; £25,000) for a prepaid journey from Vietnam to London - via Russia, Poland, Germany and France. It was organised, he says, by a Vietnamese contact back home.

"I have some Vietnamese friends in UK, who will help me find jobs when I get there," he told me. "These friends help me get on lorries or container trucks to go across the border."

The Vietnamese risking it all to get to the UK

 

[HayLouise]

More:


Security is much less tight in the nearby lorry park than around the ports further north. But few people here have managed to get past the border controls.

We were told there is a two-tier system in operation here; that those who pay more for their passage to Britain don't have to chance their luck in the lorries outside, but use this base as a transit camp before being escorted on the final leg of their journey.

The Vietnamese risking it all to get to the UK

 

[HayLouise]

A Vietnamese smuggler, interviewed by a French paper several years ago, reportedly described three levels of package. The top level allowed migrants to ride in the lorry cab and sleep in hotels. The lowest level was nicknamed "air", or more cynically "CO2" - a reference to the lack of air in some trailers.

A local volunteer in the camp told us that they'd seen Vietnamese and British men visiting migrants here in a Mercedes. And that once migrants arrived in the UK, some went to work in cannabis farms, after which all communication stopped.

The Vietnamese risking it all to get to the UK