Essex Lorry Deaths: 39 Bodies Found In Shipping Container

[pelikarski]

The media states they were 'Bulgarians'... but they were probably Roma gypsies. The media here doesn't usually directly call them as 'Roma' so not to appear as being antiziganist, but that's usually who they mean when they say 'eastern European migrants' or 'Bulgarians' or 'Romanians'. They're not usually referring to the ethnic European people in Bulgaria, but to the Roma gypsies who have Bulgarian citizenship and nationality.

I see no point 39 Gypsies being stuffed in a truck trailer, when they can enter the UK absolutely legally. They are also EU citizens and can travel anywhere within the EU.

The truck is registered in Bulgaria in 2017 and since then haven't returned back to BG.

I think either the driver was paid to smuggle them, or they got in there without his knowledge.

[Davy Jones's Locker]

In 2000, 58 Chinese migrants were found suffocated to death in a Dutch registered lorry at Dover, England: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/796791.stm

A similar case this time, all the deceased were from China.

[KMack]

These were Vietnamese. How do they get visas to get to Europe? There is no way they are getting on a plane from Vietnam, then to China, then to Europe without a visa. They must clear customs somewhere then they are smuggled into a shipping container headed to the UK.

[Longbowman]

Obviously they weren't Bulgarian, as someone pointed out Bulgarians can migrate here openly.

They were Vietnamese from France. People come to France and try to cross the channel because I guess France isn't good enough.

A tragic case.

[Rædwald]

The Media: "England is racist and oppressive"

Also the Media: "39 Vietnamese Nationals die in the back of a truck trying to gain access to England"

[Davy Jones's Locker]

Essex lorry deaths: Men jailed for killing 39 migrants in trailer

Four men have been jailed for the manslaughter of 39 Vietnamese migrants found dead in a lorry trailer in Essex.

The migrants died "excruciatingly painful" deaths, having suffocated in the container on route from Belgium to Purfleet in October 2019, a judge said.

Ronan Hughes, 41, and Gheorghe Nica, 43, played "leading roles" in the smuggling conspiracy and were jailed for 20 and 27 years respectively.

At the Old Bailey, two lorry drivers were also jailed for manslaughter.

Eamonn Harrison, 24, who towed the trailer to the Belgian port of Zeebrugge before their journey to the UK, was sentenced to 18 years.

Maurice Robinson, 26, was given 13 years and four months, having collected the trailer and opened it in an industrial estate to find the migrants dead.


Left to right: Eamonn Harrison, Ronan Hughes, Gheorghe Nica and Maurice Robinson were all jailed for manslaughter



Three others members of the people-smuggling gang were also sentenced for conspiracy to facilitate unlawful immigration.

Christopher Kennedy, 24, from County Armagh, was jailed for seven years; Valentin Calota, 38, of Birmingham, for four-and-a-half years; and Alexandru-Ovidiu Hanga, 28, of Hobart Road, Tilbury, Essex, was given a three-year sentence.


Left to right: Valentin Calota, Alexandru-Ovidiu Hanga and Christopher Kennedy were also sentenced on Friday.


Sentencing, Mr Justice Sweeney said: "I have no doubt that the conspiracy was a sophisticated, long-running and profitable one to smuggle mainly Vietnamese people across the channel."

He said on the fatal trip the temperature had been rising along with the carbon dioxide levels throughout, hitting 40C (104F) while the container was at sea on 22 October 2019.

"There were desperate attempts to contact the outside world by phone and to break through the roof of the container," the judge said.

"All were to no avail and, before the ship reached Purfleet, [the victims] all died in what must have been an excruciatingly painful death."

BBC