Give them air.. but don’t let them out
Court told of boss’ message to trucker who found 39 migrants
A PEOPLE smuggler found 39 migrants dead in his lorry after his boss messaged: “Give them air quickly, but don’t let them out”, a court heard yesterday.
Maurice Robinson, 26, discovered the bodies of the Vietnamese men, women and children aged 15 to 44 after he opened the sealed unit.
They had been trapped for almost 12 hours without fresh air as temperatures reached 38.5C.
There was no phone reception in the pitch dark container but some victims tried to send messages.
Pham Thi Ngoc Oanh, 28, wrote an unsent text to her loved ones reading: “Maybe going to die in the container, can’t breathe any more.”
Prosecutors say migrants were charged “upwards of £10,000” each for a trip across the Channel.
Robinson opened the container after collecting it in Purfleet docks, Essex, following a crossing from Zeebrugge in Belgium, the Old Bailey heard.
Prosecutor Bill Emlyn Jones QC said: “What he found must haunt him still. For the 39 men and women inside, that lorry had become their tomb. The trailer was a refrigerator unit but the refrigerator had not been turned on.
“Recovered readings indicate that the temperature inside the trailer rose to what must have been an unbearable 38.5C, more than 101F.”
Postmortems showed the victims died of oxygen starvation due to increased carbon dioxide.
The court heard Eamonn Harrison, 23, picked up the migrants in his lorry in Northern Europe and took it to Zeebrugge where it was loaded on to a ship.
Robinson collected it in the early hours of October 23 last year.
Prosecutors say he “almost immediately” stopped and opened the rear doors. The court heard that after finding the bodies, he rang accomplices before dialling 999.
Christopher Kennedy, 24, was allegedly a “member of the team” involved in previous smuggling. He texted a friend: “Must have been 2 meany [sic] and run out of air.” The “team” are said to have carried out two other illegal operations in the previous fortnight and got migrants to “safe locations”.
Mr Jones QC said: “This is a payment on delivery business.”
Harrison, from Co Down, Nor thern Ireland, denies 39 manslaughter counts and conspiracy to assist immigration.
Gheorghe Nica, 43, of Basildon, Essex, is accused of organising transport for migrants in the UK. He denies 39 counts of manslaughter but admits conspiracy. Kennedy, of Northern Ireland, and Valentin Calota, 37, of Birmingham, both deny participating in the conspiracy.
Robinson, from Co Armagh, Ireland, has already pleaded guilty to 39 counts of manslaughter and the conspiracy charge.
Ronan Hughes, 41, who ran a haulage company based in Co Monaghan, also admits 39 counts of manslaughter and the conspiracy.
The trial continues.
101F Stifling temperature inside lorry trailer where migrants died
39 Men, women & children aged from 15 to 44 from Vietnam died in trailer
£10k Cost of crossing the Channel for migrants, according to prosecutors