Arrests made in Ireland, Vietnam over deaths of migrants in truck
Police in Vietnam, said they had detained two persons and summoned others for questioning
DUBLIN: Dublin’s High Court on Friday remanded a 23-yearold man from Northern Ireland, pending possible extradition to Britain, over bodies found in a refrigerated truck near London on October 23.
Police in Vietnam, where many of the victims are thought to have originated, on Friday said they had detained two persons and summoned others for questioning. Police in the English county of Essex, meanwhile, urged two hauliers — identified as Ronan and Christopher Hughes from Northern Ireland — to help in the probe.
“We urge anyone who has been in contact with them or has any information about where they are to get in contact with us,” said leading Essex detective Dan Stoten.
The alleged driver of the truck, a 25-year-old from Northern Ireland, has already been charged over the deaths. He faces 39 counts of manslaughter as well as human trafficking and immigration offenses.
Identification still awaited
The bodies of eight women and 31 men were found west of London inside a container that had arrived in Britain from Zeebrugge in Belgium. Autopsies have been carried out, but no identities or formal causes of death have been published by British authorities.
On Friday, UK police said they believe all of the victims were Vietnamese nationals.
Vietnamese village awaits news
Families in the Vietnamese rural village of Dien Thinh told Associated Press of fears that two young men — aged 18 and 30 — were among those missing.
Both had last contacted home on October 22. They had lived in France since 2017, and had intended to reach Britain.
One family said it had borrowed the equivalent of $17,500 (€15,700) from a bank to pay for its son, Hoang Van Tiep, to first be smuggled to France. There, he had worked in restaurants, sending money home.
To reach England, the family said it had last month paid an additional i nstallment to traffickers.
Since late October, the family said it had not been asked for the second and final payment.
Some migration ‘legal,’ some not
Truong Cong Suu, the Labor department head in the central Vietnamese district where the village of Dien Thinh is located, said about 1,000 residents took legal routes to work overseas each year — normally via registered hiring agencies.
However, a further 200 to 300 went through illegitimate channels, Suu said.