39 found dead in back of a truck in one of UK's worst people smuggling tragedies. Video / ITV
From China to Belgium and into the UK. It's an 8000-kilometre route that dozens have attempted this century, travelling wedged in the back of trucks with catastrophic consequences.
The bodies of 39 Chinese nationals — 31 men and eight women — were found this week in a refrigerated truck in Essex having travelled from Zeebrugge, Belgium to the English port of Purfleet on the River Thames, reports News.com.au.
In 2000, 60 Chinese nationals who attempted the same crossing were brought into the major coastal port of Dover. They were found stowed in a tomato truck in pitch-black darkness.
Fifty-four men and four women died but two young men miraculously lived.
Their survival was attributed at an inquest to the fact that more oxygen had become available inside the refrigerated container with the death of each fellow stowaway.
The 60 people who made the months-long journey to the UK hailed from China's southern Fujian province.
Thirty-nine people, believed to be from China, were found dead in this truck. Photo / AP
They were smuggled there by human traffickers, known as "snakeheads" in their country, after each agreeing to pay tens of thousands of pounds to start a new life.
Dutch lorry driver Perry Wacker closed the air vent on the side of the container before the truck was loaded onto the ferry at Zeebrugge, shutting off the air supply to his human cargo.
Some died in less than two hours while others suffered for five hours before they succumbed to the conditions, Graham Perrin, then coroner's officer for Deal and Dover, told an inquest.
Clothing was removed to cool down but they soon started to inhale their own carbon dioxide.
"It would appear that, some 90 minutes into the journey and realising the situation they were in, attempts were made by the occupants to raise the alarm," Mr Perrin said, according to the Telegraph.
"This happened as they became slowly short of breath, hot and sweaty.
"They attempted to open the vent from within and moved the stack of tomatoes to one side to attempt to open the rear doors.
"All the deceased had consumed some of the tomatoes, probably to keep their spirits going."
Most of the victims had small amounts of money and scraps of paper with telephone numbers.
The two survivors reportedly told hospital staff they had been "clawing" at the truck's walls.
"They said it was very dark inside the trailer so they were tripping over dead bodies as they tried to make their way to the doors," a hospital source told the Telegraph.
"They banged on the doors and shouted at the top of their voices, but eventually they had to give up through weakness.
"One man said it was like an angel had been sent from Heaven when the back door of the lorry trailer was finally opened."
Mo Robinson has been arrested on suspicion of murder after 39 bodies were found in a lorry in Essex. Photo / Facebook
WHAT ROUTE DID THEY TAKE?
After noticing the driver worked for an unknown company and had paid cash for the crossing, ferry operator P&O tipped off UK customs.
"Just before midnight, customs officials stopped the truck, searched it, and found to their absolute horror what turned out to be 58 dead bodies inside," Mark Pugash, Kent County Police spokesman, told AP in June 2000.
The first officer to see the scene was "completely traumatised".
Another said: "There were just piles and piles of bodies. It was absolutely sickening. We were also overcome by the most revolting smell."
He was sentenced in 2001 to 14 years in jail for the manslaughter of 58 Chinese immigrants.
The two survivors, Su Di Ke and Ke Shi Guang, told Wacker's trial they met at Fujian airport and were flown to Beijing, according to the Guardian.
They were smuggled across Europe with "snakehead minders" — including through Belgrade in Serbia, Hungary, Austria and France — to a safe house in Rotterdam, the Netherlands.
The court heard a Dutch gang took them in two delivery vans to a warehouse where they were all loaded into the front of the container, with boxes of tomatoes stacked between them.
The air vent was open, and Mr Ke said they were given four buckets of water for the journey.
HAS ANYTHING CHANGED?
A warrant for further detention of Robinson was granted on Thursday. Photo / Facebook
In 2000, then British prime minister Tony Blair said what he called the "trade in people" must be stamped out following the discovery.
Geoff Dossetter, from the Freight Transport Association, said they were doing everything possible to stop the "dreadful business".
"Here in the UK, we're ending up with the problem," Mr Dossetter said.
Home Secretary Jack Straw said the government was determined to crack down on the trade.
"Let no one be in any doubt that this is a profoundly evil trade whose perpetrators have no regard for human life," he said at the time.
Nando Sigona, a professor of migration studies at the University of Birmingham, this week said tougher migration controls born of populist anti-immigrant sentiment across Europe were closing down less dangerous routes to the West, which has encouraged smugglers to take more risks and try out new routes.
"The fact that all these people came from the same country could hint to a more organised crime scenario," he told The Associated Press.
"Usually, if it's an ad hoc arrangement at the port, you would get a bit of a mix of nationalities."
He said smugglers can earn more by packing as many people as possible into a ship or truck.
"Death is a side effect," he said.
Prof Sigona, who has studied Chinese immigrants to the UK, said China's rising middle class has more access to multiple routes to come to the West legally — say, with student or tourist visas.
This means that the West is now closer to the public imagination in China, and could prompt those with fewer resources to put themselves and their families into debt in hopes of reaping similar rewards.
UK authorities have warned for several years that people smugglers are turning to Dutch and Belgian ports because of increased security measures on the busiest cross-Channel trade route between the ports of Calais, France and Dover, England.
Britain's National Crime Agency (NCA) said the number of migrants being smuggled into the UK in containers and trucks had risen in the last year.
In May, it said there had been "increasing use of higher risk methods of clandestine entry" to Britain by organised immigration crime gangs.
It suspects the criminal networks are targeting quieter ports on the east and south coasts of the UK, where security checks for people smuggling are believed to be less stringent.
Road Haulage Association chief executive Richard Burnett told the Irish Mirror the refrigerated unit would have been "absolutely horrendous" for anyone trapped inside.
Temperatures can reach as low as -25 degrees for frozen products, causing humans to "lose their lives pretty quickly," he said.
"It's going to be dark. If the fridge is running it's going to be incredibly cold," he said.
"The only place to go to the toilet is on board the back of the trailer. You can imagine if they've been in there for days then there will be faeces, there will be urine."
In an update on Thursday night (local time), Essex Police said the first 11 of the 39 victims had been taken in a private ambulance under escort to Broomfield Hospital in Chelmsford.
It is about 50km from the docks.
"The process of victim recovery under the DVI (Disaster Victim Identification) process is likely to take some time," police said.
"The next stages will be for post-mortem examinations to be carried out.
"We continue to ensure the dignity of the victims is our primary consideration."
