Priest fears for migrant friend

A Vietnamese priest working in Taranaki fears a friend from his home village could be among the dead migrants found in a truck in the UK.

Father Vui Hoang, the assistant priest at St Joseph’s in New Plymouth, believed his childhood friend Hungh Van Nguyen could have been among the eight women and 31 men found dead last Wednesday in a truck’s refrigerated container in an industrial park in Essex.

The dead were originally identified as Chinese but later it emerged they may be Vietnamese. UK police are struggling to identify the victims, who are believed to have come from Asia, and autopsies are being performed.

Hoang said he had last seen his friend just before Christmas in Marseille, a port city in southern France, where he believes he was an illegal immigrant working as a kitchen hand.

He stayed with him for two nights but never asked how he got there or whether he intended to try and sneak across the border into England.

‘‘I believe he came to Europe illegally, I presumed it.

‘‘We know the reason why people go away, so we never ask because we know the reason.’’

The men had grown up together until Hoang moved to Ho Chi Minh City when he was aged 11.

They stayed in touch and Hoang used to visit when he returned home.

He said it was proving difficult to identify the bodies and many Vietnamese families were not coming forward to say their loved ones were missing because they were scared.

Meanwhile, the Vietnamese Embassy in London has started a hotline to help families seeking information on loved ones following the deaths of people believed to be victims of human smuggling.

Hoang said not knowing the fate of his friend for certain was troubling.

‘‘We can assume that the chance they were in the truck was very high.

‘‘It is very troubling because we are still waiting.’’

He asked New Zealanders to pray

‘‘I pray for all of those families who are suffering.’’

Police believe the container came from Bulgaria and was shipped from Zeebrugge, Belgium, to Purfleet, Essex.

So far police in the UK have made four arrests in connect with the deaths.