U.K. police identify migrant victims
LONDON • British police on Friday released names of the 39 migrants who were found dead in a refrigerated truck container found in Essex and said they were working with authorities in Vietnam on how to repatriate the bodies.
The list of victims includes 10 teenagers, two of them 15-year-old boys, Dinh Dinh Binh and Nguyen Huy Hung.
Pham Thi Tra My, 26, was also among the victims. She sent a heartbreaking text message to her mother when she was in the container, en route to England. “Mom, I love you. I’m dying, I can’t breathe,” she wrote.
Assistant Chief Constable Tim Smith, who is in charge of the investigation, said in a statement that police had been “working hard to bring answers to worried families who fear their loved one may be among those whose tragic journey ended on our shores. Our priority has been to identify the victims, to preserve the dignity of those who have died and to support the victims’ friends and families.”
He said that the victims’ next of kin were informed and “were given some time to absorb this tragic news before we publicly confirmed their loved one’s identity.”
The police worked with Britain’s National Crime Agency, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and Vietnamese authorities to identify and locate families.
Many of the victims came from the provinces of Nghe An and Ha Tinh in Vietnam, which have a long history of sending migrants to Europe, especially to Britain.
People such as Nguyen Dinh Tu, 26, a father of two, who had borrowed $39,700 to fund his journey to Britain. He came from Nghe An, the largest province in Vietnam and one of its poorest regions. His name appeared on the list published Friday.
His aunt, Nguyen Thi Chin, previously told The Washington Post that “his friend told him that he should go to England, where he could make $3,400 a month working in a nail salon.”
Late last month, Essex police were called to an industrial estate about 40 kilometres east of central London in the town of Grays, near the River Thames, where they discovered the 39 bodies.
Maurice Robinson, the 25-year-old driver of the truck, has been charged with 39 counts of manslaughter, conspiracy to traffic people and money laundering.
Eamonn Harrison, 22, has also charged with multiple counts of manslaughter. U.K. authorities are currently seeking his extradition from Ireland.
On Thursday, British police confirmed that all of the victims — 31 males and eight females — were Vietnamese nationals.
“May I take this opportunity to offer my deepest condolences to the victims’ families, said Caroline Beasley-Murray, the senior coroner for the investigation.