Chelmsford, England - The driver of a
truck in which 39 people were found dead appeared in a British
court via video link on Monday charged with manslaughter and
conspiracy to traffic people.
The discovery of 39 bodies in a refrigerated truck on an
industrial estate east of London has shone a spotlight on the
illicit global trade in people which sends the poor of Asia,
Africa and the Middle East on perilous journeys to the West.
Driver Maurice Robinson, 25, appeared in Chelmsford
Magistrates’ Court via video link, speaking only to confirm his
name and address. He wore a grey sweatshirt.
Robinson faces 39 counts of manslaughter as well as charges
of conspiracy to traffic people, conspiracy to assist unlawful
immigration and money laundering, police said.
"This involves a global ring facilitating the movement of a
large number of immigrants into the UK," prosecution lawyer
Ogheneruona Mercy Iguyovwe told the court.
Robinson made no application for bail. He was remanded in
custody until Nov. 25 when the case will continue at the Old
Bailey, London's Central Criminal Court, and he will enter a
plea.
The driver was arrested shortly after the grisly discovery
of the bodies in the early hours of Oct. 23 a few miles from the
English port of Purfleet. The container had travelled from the
Belgian port of Zeebrugge.
British police initially said the 39 dead were thought to
have been Chinese but it later emerged that many were from
Vietnam, where communities have been plunged into despair in the
belief their missing loved ones are dead.
Police have said very few of the victims were carrying
official identification and that they hope to identify the dead
through fingerprints, dental records and DNA, as well as
photographs from friends and relatives.
FROM VIETNAM?
The Vietnamese government said Britain had sent dossiers
regarding four of the people found in the truck, seeking help in
identifying them.
Deputy Foreign Minister Bui Thanh Son told reporters: "The
Ministry of Foreign Affairs is developing dossiers of possible
victims, but until now there have been no grounds to confirm
Vietnamese nationals are among the victims."
The suspected victims hail from Vietnam's northern
rice-growing areas of Nghe An and Ha Tinh, two of the
communist-ruled nation's poorest provinces.
One 19-year-old, Bui Thi Nhung, is believed by her family to
be one of the 39 people found dead.
Nhung's family said she first left Nghe An on her journey
overseas in August. She went to China first, before eventually
making her way to Germany, then Belgium, where they believe she
boarded the ill-fated truck.
About 70 percent of Vietnamese trafficking cases in Britain
between 2009 and 2016 were for labour exploitation, including
cannabis production and work in nail salons, the British
government said last year.
Nghe An was identified as home to many victims of human
trafficking who end up in Europe, according to a March report by
the Pacific Links Foundation, a U.S.-based anti-trafficking
organisation.
The other province, Ha Tinh, was ravaged by one of Vietnam's
worst environmental disasters in 2016 when a steel mill owned by
Taiwan's Formosa Plastics contaminated coastal waters,
devastating fishing and tourism there.