PORT ‘SOFT SPOT’ FOR SMUGGLERS
Expert backs AM’s claim about Holyhead:
MORE details of the last journeys made by a lorry and a container where 39 people were found dead have emerged.
GPS data from the vehicle has now confirmed that the front section of the lorry – known as the tractor – and the container did travel through Holyhead Port on Anglesey days before the grim discovery was made, contrary to initial reports from Essex Police.
The tragedy has prompted an international investigation.
Post-mortem examinations have begun on the bodies – which are all believed to be those of migrants – found in the lorry Essex in the early hours of last Wednesday.
Sources have now revealed to the likes of the BBC the final journeys made by the tractor and the container in the days before the tragedy came to light.
GPS data obtained from both the refrigerated trailer and the tractor show that both sections passed through Holyhead Port separately within days of each other.
The information shows that the trailer was leased from Irish company Global Trailer Rental Group on October 15, departing from Monaghan on that day before crossing to Northern Ireland and then back again to the republic.
It then went from Dublin to Holyhead Port on Anglesey via ferry overnight on October 16.
The lorry then made its way through North Wales that day (October 16), through England and crossing over to mainland Europe.
Between October 16 and 22, the lorry made two trips between the UK and Europe in total.
The trailer arrived at Purfleet at around 12.30am on Wednesday, shortly before the bodies were discovered.
Meanwhile, the tractor came from Northern Ireland and docked in Holyhead on Sunday.
It was later attached to the trailer and left the port at Purfleet in Essex shortly after 1.05am. Officers were then called to the Waterglade Industrial Park on Eastern Avenue in Grays at 1.40am.
Police have not confirmed whether the driver raised the alarm after finding the bodies, while his supporters have set up petitions online calling for his release.
On Thursday evening, the first 11 bodies were moved by a private ambulance with a police escort from the port of Tilbury to Broomfield Hospital in Chelmsford, while three more ambulances left the port on Friday afternoon.
People living close to Purfleet – the port where the container entered the UK – said illegal migrants were a familiar sight.
It is not yet known when the victims entered the sealed refrigerated trailer, where temperatures can be as low as -25C, nor the exact route it travelled.
Belgian officials said the trailer arrived at Zeebrugge at 2.49pm on Tuesday and left the port the same day en route to Purfleet.
Joachim Coens, chief executive of Zeebrugge port, said it was unlikely people were loaded into the container at the Belgian site, while Mayor Dirk De Fauw, who is also the chairman of the port, said it was “virtually impossible” the victims went into the trailer at the Belgian border.
Irish company Global Trailer Rentals Ltd confirmed it owned the refrigerated part of the lorry and a spokesman said the company was “shellshocked” and “gutted” by the news.
The firm said the trailer had been leased from its rentals yard in Co Monaghan, in the Republic of Ireland, at a rate of €275 a week.
It said it provided police with information about the person and company that leased the trailer, as well as offering to make tracking data available.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Boris Johnson has pledged to do everything in his power to bring those responsible for the deaths to justice.
The Prime Minister was joined at Thurrock Civic Offices by Home Secretary Priti Patel and senior members of the Essex emergency services to pay their respects to the victims.
All the dignitaries signed a book of condolence before laying wreaths in the Mulberry garden outside.
In his message, the Prime Minister wrote: “The whole nation and indeed the world has been shocked by this tragedy and the cruelty of the fate that has been suffered by innocent people who were hoping for a better life in this country.”