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

[HayLouise]

A report by one of France's biggest charities described smugglers telling Vietnamese migrants that refrigerated lorries gave them more chance of avoiding detection, and giving each of them an aluminium bag to put over their heads while passing through scanners at the border.

No one here had heard about the 39 people found dead this week.

This journey is about freedom, one said.

The Vietnamese risking it all to get to the UK

 

[HayLouise]

#VietnamEmbassy in London said they provided information about three missing Vietnamese to the UK police to verify if they were among the 39 dead bodies found in #Essex; however, no confirmation received yet: Sky News

Global Times on Twitter

 

[HayLouise]

Essex lorry deaths: A Vietnamese community website in the UK has been given around 20 photos of people reported missing by their families

[URL="https://news.sky.com/story/essex-lorry-deaths-uk-vietnamese-group-given-photos-of-missing-people-11845397"]Essex lorry deaths: UK Vietnamese group hands photos of missing to police
[/URL]
Sky News on Twitter

 

[HayLouise]

26 October 2019:

Essex lorry deaths: UK Vietnamese group hands photos of missing to police

A Vietnamese website in the UK has given police around 20 photos of people reported missing since 39 people were found dead in a lorry in Essex.

The community site Viethome says it was given the photos by families and has handed them to the Serious Crime Directorate.

It has asked relatives not to post the images online.

Those reported missing are aged between 15 to 45.

Essex lorry deaths: UK Vietnamese group hands photos of missing to police

 

[Ched]

Police are searching for a second lorry driver in connection with the deaths of 39 people found in a trailer after he was filmed 10 times at a Belgium port. CCTV cameras at Zeebrugge captured the HGV as it went through the terminal on its way to Pursfleet and then Grays in Essex, Essex lorry deaths: Hunt for second driver caught on CCTV at port in Belgium

 

[LuluR38]

Here’s an interesting pic of Mo with a loyalist flag ...

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

 

[Ched]

A man arrested on Friday morning in connection with Wednesday's Essex lorry tragedy is originally from Offaly, the Offaly Express can reveal.

A bit of background on the couple Offaly man arrested in relation to Essex lorry tragedy

 

[LuluR38]

Police are searching for a second lorry driver in connection with the deaths of 39 people found in a trailer after he was filmed 10 times at a Belgium port. CCTV cameras at Zeebrugge captured the HGV as it went through the terminal on its way to Pursfleet and then Grays in Essex, Essex lorry deaths: Hunt for second driver caught on CCTV at port in Belgium

Be curious to know who this is - this is a key question, who delivered the cargo to the terminal? there are a lot of truck driving Robinsons on his Facebook page and a Mark Robinson haulage company in portadown. Chap seems younger than his dad however so I don’t think it’s him.

Here’s an interesting pic of Mo with a loyalist flag ...

 

[katydid23]

I saw at some point that the Chinese hold the UK and the EU at least partly responsible for this tragedy.

The story so far suggests that these poor souls made it half way round the world, and perished in the last 100 miles of the journey? At a border.

One has to ask whether the policies and procedures relating to this border have contributed (or even caused) this to happen.

To take an extreme view ... if there was no border.. this would not have happened.

That is an extreme view. They may have died in other ways if there were no borders.

China blaming the EU seems unfair. WHY are these immigrants so desperate to leave their homelands? Maybe some of the blame should go in that direction, instead of the country that holds the answer to their troubles.

Why not ask the hard questions about why they are fleeing their homelands in such desperation?

 

[alice500]

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

One has to ask why this was necessary... when a flight from Vietnam to London costs £300

 

[HayLouise]

26 October 2019:


Essex lorry deaths: Holyhead Port is 'soft spot for people trafficking' AM claims

An anti human slavery expert says a North Wales AM was right to brand Holyhead Port a "soft spot for people trafficking" in the wake of the Essex lorry deaths tragedy.

[...]


But Alison Ussery, who with husband Nate, runs Haven of Light , an anti-slavery awareness charity based in Colwyn Bay agrees with North Wales Tory AM Mark Isherwood's criticism of security at main passenger and freight terminal.

Mr Isherwood made the "soft spot" claims at the Senedd this week after news of the deaths brok

Mrs Ussery said UK Border Force officials border services do what they can to counter the threat of people trafficking but their intelligence-led operations are not enough.

She said: "Holyhead Port is pretty porous. I'm not saying they don't bother or the border force are not doing their jobs. They don't have the resources.

"They don't have the space to park the wagons so they can be checked. How do you deal with all those excess containers. Their operations are intelligence-led but these gangs are very clever."

Mrs Ussery worked on international aid and development in Romania after the fall of communism, reconciliation projects in Croatia after the Balkans war and was involved in setting up anti-slavery initiatives in North Wales.

She said the decision to cut funding for the post of North Wales Anti-Slavery Co-ordinator, held by former North Wales Police officer Jim Coy until 2017, also weakened the fight against the traffickers: "I think it was a very bad move because we lost this huge figure who knew his stuff."

Essex lorry deaths: Holyhead Port is 'soft spot for people trafficking'

 

[alice500]

Police are searching for a second lorry driver in connection with the deaths of 39 people found in a trailer after he was filmed 10 times at a Belgium port. CCTV cameras at Zeebrugge captured the HGV as it went through the terminal on its way to Pursfleet and then Grays in Essex, Essex lorry deaths: Hunt for second driver caught on CCTV at port in Belgium

It is interesting that the Belgian media only seem to be repeating what is in the UK papers. Are they under different rules? The UK has put it's police force into the media firing line... Is there perhaps a Belgian (or EuroPol) counterpart to Pippa Mills?

 

[HayLouise]

Mr Isherwood told the Senedd the "the Holyhead Port issue" was raised in a North Wales Police report in 2017.

Mr Isherwood claimed that report showed manifests on ferries were inaccurate, with traffickers using false names to gain passage to the UK from Ireland.

On Wednesday Mr Isherwood said the UK's first Anti-Slavery Commissioner Kevin Hyland would be willing to meet with Welsh Government to discuss the issue.

Mr Hyland, who advises the Vatican on anti-slavery, was also formerly head of the Metropolitan Police's Human Trafficking Unit.

Mr Isherwood said he was told by Mr Hyland there was "too much back slapping" because "99.6 to 99.7% of victims are missed across the world". Only "0.35 per cent of perpetrators were convicted last year globally", he said.

Essex lorry deaths: Holyhead Port is 'soft spot for people trafficking'

 

[HayLouise]

26 October 2019:

Dad of woman who sent chilling texts 'from inside Essex lorry' tells of heartache

"I've lost both my loved one and my money," dad Pham said in an interview with CCN.

Despite earning the equivalent of $400 (£311) a month between them, the couple scarped together the thousands of dollars needed to send their daughter to the UK.

After they paid the smugglers, Tra My travelled through China and France on her way to Pursfleet.

"The smugglers said that this was a ... safe route, that people would go by airplane, car ... if I had known she would go by this route, I would not have let her go," Pham said.

The devastated mum and dad are now waiting on the British and Vietnamese authorities to send their daughter's body home.

Dad of woman who sent chilling texts 'from Essex lorry' tells of heartache

 

[HayLouise]

Police are now searching for a second lorry driver after he was filmed 10 times at a Belgium port.

CCTV cameras at Zeebrugge captured the HGV as it went through the terminal on its way to Pursfleet and then Grays in Essex.

Dutch language newspaper Het Nieuwsblad has quoted a source thought to be a Belgium official who suggested authorities on the continent are now searching for the lorry's driver before it crossed the Channel.

"We hope to catch him soon," they are quoting as saying.

"His truck was filmed 10 times at the port site."

Dad of woman who sent chilling texts 'from Essex lorry' tells of heartache

 

[alice500]

A man arrested on Friday morning in connection with Wednesday's Essex lorry tragedy is originally from Offaly, the Offaly Express can reveal.

A bit of background on the couple Offaly man arrested in relation to Essex lorry tragedy

I see this was not the man arrested in Stansted.

This bit of the article was interesting ..

“We are working closely with the National Crime Agency, the Home Office, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, Border Force and Immigration Enforcement."

No mention of the Belgian police .. or is that done through the other agencies?

 

[alice500]

Police are now searching for a second lorry driver after he was filmed 10 times at a Belgium port.

CCTV cameras at Zeebrugge captured the HGV as it went through the terminal on its way to Pursfleet and then Grays in Essex.

Dutch language newspaper Het Nieuwsblad has quoted a source thought to be a Belgium official who suggested authorities on the continent are now searching for the lorry's driver before it crossed the Channel.

"We hope to catch him soon," they are quoting as saying.

"His truck was filmed 10 times at the port site."

Dad of woman who sent chilling texts 'from Essex lorry' tells of heartache

10 times ... over what period? Or is that caught on 10 cameras ... over a short stretch.

 

[alice500]

That is an extreme view. They may have died in other ways if there were no borders.

China blaming the EU seems unfair. WHY are these immigrants so desperate to leave their homelands? Maybe some of the blame should go in that direction, instead of the country that holds the answer to their troubles.

Why not ask the hard questions about why they are fleeing their homelands in such desperation?

Equally valid question.

I do not think China "blamed the EU" but suggested that they and the UK bore SOME responsibility. This must be the case .. surely all states have SOME responsibility for everything which occurs within their borders.

 

[Mrs Marple]

Police are searching for a second lorry driver in connection with the deaths of 39 people found in a trailer after he was filmed 10 times at a Belgium port. CCTV cameras at Zeebrugge captured the HGV as it went through the terminal on its way to Pursfleet and then Grays in Essex, Essex lorry deaths: Hunt for second driver caught on CCTV at port in Belgium

Finally!! This is clearly a huge operation, but l suspect whomever delivered the trailer to the port is long gone.

26 October 2019:

Dad of woman who sent chilling texts 'from inside Essex lorry' tells of heartache

"I've lost both my loved one and my money," dad Pham said in an interview with CCN.

Despite earning the equivalent of $400 (£311) a month between them, the couple scarped together the thousands of dollars needed to send their daughter to the UK.

After they paid the smugglers, Tra My travelled through China and France on her way to Pursfleet.

"The smugglers said that this was a ... safe route, that people would go by airplane, car ... if I had known she would go by this route, I would not have let her go," Pham said.

The devastated mum and dad are now waiting on the British and Vietnamese authorities to send their daughter's body home.

Dad of woman who sent chilling texts 'from Essex lorry' tells of heartache

No mention of anyone getting their money back. Why would they go back to the family and risk arrest? They've scarpered as well and taken the money with them.

 

[alice500]

I have another technical question ..... I wonder how many mobile phone calls were made through the masts along the 10 minute route from Purfleet Docks to Eastern Avenue at that time of the morning? .. Surely there is a log ?