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

[CoverMeCagney]

Essex truck deaths: ‘I'm sorry mum, my journey abroad hasn't succeeded’

This headline on its own is just heartbreaking.

I wonder if the text messages didn't send until the doors were opened, otherwise surely they could have raised help before it was too late.

 

[Jealoushe]

This. He mighty proud for something he doesn't even own??

It's a lifestyle...they are proud to drive those rigs. Also he may have been leasing it, so not technically the owner.

The BBC has spoken to the families of three Vietnamese people who are worried their relatives may have been in the trailer.

The family of one woman say she sent a text saying she was suffocating.

They say Pham Tra My, 26, sent the message on Tuesday night and they have not been able to contact her since. They said they had paid £30,000 for her to be smuggled to Britain.

Two more arrests over 39 lorry deaths

Do they know the risk doing it and just not care?

 

[Taskforce88]

So it would appear that they suffocated and did not freeze to death?

 

[CSIDreamer]

I almost hope they identify her from this group. Otherwise. There may be more out there who perished.

 

[HayLouise]

Fears Vietnamese woman who sent alarming texts to mum was one of 39 on lorry

 

[CSIDreamer]

So it would appear that they suffocated and did not freeze to death?

Be nice to know. They've been reported as freezing to death.

 

[CoverMeCagney]

Do they know the risk doing it and just not care?

Many more must succeed than fail. While I'm sure trafficking / smuggling occurs on a daily basis, headline news like this is rare. This is the third "mass deaths" case in Europe in the last 20 years or so

JUNE 2000: Dover, UK, 58 Chinese nationals found dead in a lorry
AUGUST 2015: Austria, 71 found dead in a lorry
OCTOBER 2019: Essex, UK, 39 to be identified

List of migrant vehicle incidents in Europe - Wikipedia

See list in Wiki link, there are several other incidents of multiple people being found alive.

I can only think there are hundreds (thousands?) more people who managed to end their journey safely.

 

[Gardenista]

It's a lifestyle...they are proud to drive those rigs. Also he may have been leasing it, so not technically the owner.
Do they know the risk doing it and just not care?

My guess is the people who are organizing the slave transport downplay the risk

 

[Ched]

I’m going to sound really dumb now but £30k . If you had that kind of money couldn’t you have just booked a return flight to come to the Uk as a tourist for 2 weeks and then once here you just disappear and don’t go home ?

I thought they paid for their ‘transport’ once they start illegal work in the uk

 

[azure]

£30k absolutely boggles the mind. Going to sound extremely small-minded here, but as an American, I can fly on a budget airline pretty much anywhere in the world for under $1000 (I'm flying to Morocco for about $600 next month, and home from Dakar for about $750, for example.) I understand that my US passport gives me a lot of privilege, but can someone explain why it's so difficult to emigrate from Vietnam? How could a family with the means to afford a £30k fee be so naive as to send their child on this torturous journey? I'm so shocked I'm not even making sense over here...

 

[Gardenista]

Many more must succeed than fail. While I'm sure trafficking / smuggling occurs on a daily basis, headline news like this is rare. This is the third "mass deaths" case in Europe in the last 20 years or so

JUNE 2000: Dover, UK, 58 Chinese nationals found dead in a lorry
AUGUST 2015: Austria, 71 found dead in a lorry
OCTOBER 2019: Essex, UK, 39 to be identified

List of migrant vehicle incidents in Europe - Wikipedia

See list in Wiki link, there are several other incidents of multiple people being found alive.

I can only think there are hundreds (thousands?) more people who managed to end their journey safely.

This makes more sense. What's the use of transporting people to do slave labor if they are dead or in poor shape when you take possession of them?

 

[Taskforce88]

Truck owners have been arrested as well I have just noticed. Trailer unit came from Dublin on the outward journey.

 

[HayLouise]

BREAKING | Mo Robinson is due at Chelmsford Magistrates' Court on Saturday morning, a crown court official has said.

Essex Police have yet to confirm what he has been charged with but his name also appears on a draft list at Chelmsford Crown Court on Monday.

Gareth Davies on Twitter

 

[Jealoushe]

I’m going to sound really dumb now but £30k . If you had that kind of money couldn’t you have just booked a return flight to come to the Uk as a tourist for 2 weeks and then once here you just disappear and don’t go home ?

I thought they paid for their ‘transport’ once they start illegal work in the uk

Because then they know you are in the country. Once they know you are there they come looking if you don't leave.

 

[Mrs Marple]

Be nice to know. They've been reported as freezing to death.

You know l did wonder. If the bodies were still frozen, or if they had thawed. I don't know what made me wonder this, but something l read has made it pop into my head.

 

[Taskforce88]

Thermal cameras are useless on refrigerated trailers, hence why smugglers use them more.

I wonder when the refrigerator unit was switched on.

 

[Mrs Marple]

BREAKING | Mo Robinson is due at Chelmsford Magistrates' Court on Saturday morning, a crown court official has said.

Essex Police have yet to confirm what he has been charged with but his name also appears on a draft list at Chelmsford Crown Court on Monday.

Gareth Davies on Twitter

Still working on him then?

 

[Taskforce88]

You know l did wonder. If the bodies were still frozen, or if they had thawed. I don't know what made me wonder this, but something l read has made it pop into my head.

I noticed that a black tarpaulin had been laid on the trailer floor as it was getting driven away.

 

[HongKongPhooey]

BREAKING: Grave fears Tra My may be one of the 39 people on board Essex truck. She wrote a message to her mum saying “I’m dying because I can’t breath”. Her family in Vietnam are trying to verify if she was among those on board @9NewsAUS

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Sophie Walsh on Twitter

Man oh man, how awful

 

[dixiegirl1035]

This headline on its own is just heartbreaking.

I wonder if the text messages didn't send until the doors were opened, otherwise surely they could have raised help before it was too late.

Good point. Did the lorry being steel and closed prevent transmission until doors opened? I would assume LE has all phones and will be on top of that