Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
TOMB OF STEEL
Hunt for evil gang of people-smugglers after migrants found in trailer
A LORRY containing the bodies of 39 migrants stands parked in the road as a grim sign of the horrors of people-smuggling.
Cops in Essex were last night probing how the victims met their deaths in the refrigerated truck.
Pictures have emerged showing Northern Irishman Mo Robinson apparently driving the same truck.
THE 39 migrants found in the back of a refrigerated lorry are feared to have suffered horrific deaths trapped in an icy tomb, experts said last night.
Police have launched an international hunt for the people-smuggling gang that sent the victims, including a teenager, to their tragic ends.
A 25-year-old man is being quizzed on suspicion of murder after the grim discovery in the early hours yesterday, on an Essex industrial estate.
Pictures have emerged showing a Northern Irishman named Mo Robinson, from near Markethill in Co Armagh, apparently driving the same truck.
They came as police revealed nine other suspected migrants were found in a lorry on the M20 in Kent.
It is not known whether the 39 victims in Essex, whose nationalities had not been confirmed last night, suffocated or froze to death.
But Road Haulage Association chief executive Richard Burnett said temperatures inside such trailers can be set as low as minus 25C, killing anyone trapped “pretty quickly”.
He also revealed the controls for the refrigeration unit are on the outside of the lorry. Mr Burnett added: “It would have been absolutely horrendous. It’s going to be dark. If the fridge is running it’ll be incredibly cold.” CCTV footage shows the distinctive red and white cab and trailer driving into Waterglade Industrial Park in Grays at 1.13am. Police were called just before 1.40am. Nearby Big Blue Squirrel self storage manager Sana Mirza said: “It makes me feel sick watching that footage knowing those people were on board.
“All I have been thinking about is the last person who was alive on there and what they must have been thinking.”
Local business co-owner Andrew Larkin told how he saw the Scania truck parked at the same spot on
Tuesday. He said: “I walked right past it at 2pm, definitely the same lorry, it stood out because of its exhaust, it’s unique. The curtains were closed around the cabin so he must have been asleep. I don’t know if there was anything inside.”
Police now know the Scania tractor unit involved in the case entered the UK at Holyhead, North Wales, crossing from Dublin on Saturday.
The refrigerated trailer, which would have had the 39 bodies inside, arrived separately at Purfleet in Essex, from the Belgian town of Zeebrugge – a notorious people-smuggling route – shortly after midnight yesterday. It was then attached to the tractor unit and left the dock area at 1.05am.
The bodies had only been in the UK for an hour and 10 minutes before they were found.
Officers guarding the scene solemnly bowed their heads last night as the lorry and trailer, still containing
It would have been absolutely horrendous. It’ll be dark and cold RICHARD BURNETT ROAD HAULAGE ASSOCIATION
the victims, were moved to a secure location so the bodies could be recovered.
Deputy Chief Constable of Essex Police Pippa Mills said identifying the deceased was a “priority” but likely to be a
“lengthy process”.
Local Tory MP Jackie Doyle-price, who represents the Thurrock, area, said: “To put 39 people into a locked metal container shows a contempt for human life that is evil.
“The best thing we can do in memory of those victims is to find the perpetrators and bring them to justice.” Irish Road Haulage Association chief Verona Murphy said: “I am
shocked and saddened to hear of the level of loss of human life in such tragic circumstances.”
Police have refused to comment on the identity of the arrested man.
Robinson is reportedly expecting a baby with his girlfriend. He has made regular Facebook posts about the truck on Instagram and Facebook, referring to it as the “Polar Express” and “Scandinavian Express”. Yesterday, his family said they haven’t “heard from him” and “don’t know what is going on”.
One lorry driver said it would “not be unusual” for a driver not to know what his load was. The unnamed trucker added: “Purfleet docks are always busy. All sorts goes in and out. The paperwork the driver deals with doesn’t have to say what’s in the trailer.
“I don’t go in the back of any of my trailers and if it’s sealed I can’t. It could be the driver has … not known.
“What is unusual is that he stopped so nearby. Normally drivers would go straight from here to a warehouse. You just wouldn’t stop before your delivery and open your back doors.”
Former immigration officer David Wood also said Purfleet is “not greatly geared up” to check for migrants. He added: “It would be fairly safe, a clear route for organised criminals to use.”
Thermal-imaging cameras used at ports are unable to detect people in refrigeration trailers.
The Scania Super truck was registered at Varna, Bulgaria, in the name of a firm owned by an Irish woman in June 2017. But local authorities said it left the country the next day.
TRAFFICKING gangs have long used the route taken by the tragic 39 migrants after authorities cracked down on Calais.
The victims found yesterday arrived on a ferry from the Belgian port of Zeebrugge, which has become a hub for smugglers hiding people in lorries.
Anthony Steen of the Human Trafficking Foundation said the migrants were likely from Afghanistan or Syria.
There are fears they were driven for days across Europe in the refrigerated unit that was then loaded on to a ship and sent to the Essex port of Purfleet.
Criminals rake in millions of pounds sending migrants on hellish 90-hour journeys in the back of lorries along the “Balkan Route” to the UK.
Millions of migrants have crossed from Turkey in the last five years into neighbouring Bulgaria, a gateway to the EU for desperate people fleeing war-torn Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan.
They are preyed on by criminal gangs who charge them up to £3,000 each to be smuggled across Europe.
Most are helped through Bulgaria into Serbia, where they are met by other traffickers. Others are put into Bulgarian-registered lorries and driven across Europe in containers.
Ex-border Force chief Tony Smith said it was rare for a sealed container to be used along this lengthy route.
He said: “It’s very, very dangerous and very unusual. I only remember one incident before. These things can be sealed and left in ports for a very long time. I haven’t ever in 40 years known for a large consignment of migrants to be smuggled in on that route. It raises questions for me.
“This will be irregular migrants probably smuggled in from outside the EU. Once inside the EU there would have been a series of safe houses that would move them up towards the coastline.”
He said smugglers have all but given up on Calais as it has been “sealed up” by UK and French authorities.
He added: “We’ve seen in recent years increasingly different and dangerous methods of human smugglers trying to get people in.
“For the last year we’ve seen small boats and people drowning.
“Now these containers are being used which suggests smugglers and migrants are getting more and more desperate. It’s a dreadful business.”
There are hopes the smugglers responsible for yesterday’s grim discovery may have left a paper trail of forms submitted to port authorities at Zeebrugge and Thurrock. Mr Smith said: “There will be an audit. I’m sure enforcement agencies and police will be looking at this.”
The trailer was picked up at Purfleet by a Bulgarian-registered, Irish-owned truck and driven to nearby Grays.
Workers on the industrial estate where the bodies were found said there had been previous issues there.
One business owner at the site said: “With the Tilbury Docks, naturally you get a lot of lorries in this area. We had a similar incident three or four years ago. We had a lorry pull up opposite where our unit is. The driver got out, opened up the back and about 20 people got out and ran off up the road.
“It’s such a quiet area and of an evening it’s very dark. I believe the police are looking at our CCTV going forward.”
Richard Burnett, boss of the Road Haulage Association, said conditions inside the trailer would have been “absolutely horrendous”.
He added: “It’s highly unlikely that if this vehicle has come from Europe that it’s been physically checked.”
Mr Burnett said smuggling gangs are a “massive issue” for UK lorry
This suggests smugglers & migrants are getting desperate
TONY SMITH FORMER BORDER FORCE CHIEF
drivers, with attacks in recent weeks. He said: “They have to be very careful about where they park up and about checking seals on their trailers to make sure nobody has broken in.
“They’ll cut holes through roofs, they’ll pull doors back, they’ll unbolt the doors and then re-bolt the doors.”
Aid agency Care 4 Calais was “horrified but not surprised” at the deaths.
Founder Clare Moseley blamed “the lack of safe and legal routes for people to apply for asylum”. She added: “It has become impossible for people to come to the UK in a safe way.
“That’s why people take dangerous journeys to come here. The sole focus on security and deterrence as a means of tackling a serious humanitarian crisis is clearly failing.”
The National Crime Agency said in May there had been “increasing use of higher risk methods of clandestine entry” by organised gangs.
Last year 12 Bulgarians were jailed over the deaths of 71 migrants who suffocated in a sealed lorry in Austria.
Police found their bodies in the lorry, registered in Hungary and abandoned near an Austrian village.
The gang leader, Afghan national Samsoor Lahoo, 31, got 25 years, as did three Bulgarian accomplices. Ten others, all but one from Bulgaria, got shorter terms for people-smuggling.
The victims came from Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria and Iran and included four children. Prosecutors said the smugglers knew the victims were going to die, and ignored the sound of them banging on the sealed interior as the oxygen ran out.
In June a massive Bulgarian-based smuggling ring was smashed after police raids in Sofia and other areas.
The majority of the suspected traffickers came from Afghanistan and Iraq and smuggled migrants into Bulgaria from Turkey.
This month Bulgaria, Greece and Cyprus warned of a dramatic rise in arrivals from Turkey. They said it could soar amid Turkey’s military operations against Kurdish fighters.
In 2017 UK authorities launched Project Invigor to tackle peoplesmuggling. It has been trying to gather intelligence in Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Africa to disrupt gangs. Last year the National Crime Agency warned smugglers were “abusing” the Ireland-uk border.
Georgian and Vietnamese gangs have previously been caught smuggling migrants into the UK via Ireland.