Lorry container became migrants’ ‘tomb’, court told
Lack of air led to the suffocation of men, women and children
A LORRY container became a “tomb” when 39 desperate men, women and children suffocated as they were smuggled across the English Channel, a court has heard.
Temperatures in the pitchblack refrigerated unit reached an “unbearable” 38.5C as the Vietnamese nationals were sealed inside for at least 12 hours, jurors were told.
Unable to raise the alarm, one of them – a 28-year-old woman – wrote a text message that was never sent, saying: “Maybe going to die in the container, can’t breathe any more dear.”
Jurors were told the cost of being smuggled across the English Channel in the back of a lorry was £10,000 (€ 11,000) per person.
Lorry driver Eamonn Harrison and Gheorghe Nica are on trial at the Old Bailey in London, accused of the manslaughter of the 39 migrants who were found dead after the lorry arrived in Purfleet, Essex, in October last year.
The pair are also accused of being part of a people-smuggling conspiracy with another lorry driver, Christopher Kennedy, and Valentin Calota.
Mr Nica (43), of Basildon, Essex, and Mr Harrison (23), of Mayobridge, Co Down, deny 39 counts of manslaughter.
Mr Nica has admitted conspiracy to assist unlawful immigration between May 1, 2018, and October 24, 2019.
Mr Harrison, Mr Calota (37), of Birmingham, and Mr Kennedy (24), of Co Armagh, deny the conspiracy charge.
Opening their Old Bailey trial, barrister Bill Emlyn Jones told jurors it was a “sad and unavoidable truth” that some people were prepared to go to great lengths to come to the UK “for a better life”.
Their desperation made them vulnerable to exploitation by those who did not care about immigration law and saw them as an opportunity to make money, the prosecutor said.
He said the people-smuggling team had operated successful runs before the one in October last year that went “dreadfully wrong”.
He told jurors: “Obviously, any time you fill an airtight container with a large number of people, where they will be left for hours and hours, with no means of escape and no means of communication with the outside world – well, it is fraught with danger.”
On October 22, 2019, 39 Vietnamese nationals – aged between 15 and 44 – were loaded into the back of a lorry in northern Europe, he said.
Mr Harrison drove them to Zeebrugge in Belgium, and unhooked his trailer where it was loaded on to a cargo ship bound for Purfleet, jurors heard.
Another lorry driver, Maurice Robinson, then collected the trailer from Purfleet when it arrived just after midnight on October 23.
Mr Emlyn Jones said by then it had been some 12 hours at least since “any meaningful amount of fresh air had been let into the sealed container”.
Robinson knew he had to check on the occupants, having been sent a message from his boss to “give them air quickly, but don’t let them out”, the court heard.
The prosecutor said: “Robinson drove out of Purfleet port and almost immediately stopped and opened the doors at the back.
“What he found must haunt him still. For the 39 men and women inside, that lorry had become their tomb.”
The trial continues.