‘Unimaginable tragedy’: 39 trafficking victims found dead in UK truck were Chinese nationals

Houses in Laurelvale and nearby Markethill were searched by police.

The truck, thought to have hailed from Bulgaria, is now believed to have entered the U.K. through Belgium. Authorities are working in England, Belgium, and Northern Ireland to find answers in the deaths of the 39 unidentified Chinese nationals.

British police officers stood by the road and bowed their heads as an officer drove the lorry, which became a mass coffin, to the Tilbury docks for the bodies to be removed.

Acquaintances of Robinson and his family expressed shock that the man could be responsible for such a heinous crime and hoped that he had innocently become mixed up in a criminal scheme.

“Clearly we need to allow the police time, the Essex Police, to conduct their investigation to carry that out to ensure that whoever was responsible for this is brought before the courts and they receive that justice that is required,” said Northern Irish Assemblyman Paul Berry, who lives in the same village as Robinson.

Robinson, who lived with a long-term girlfriend who is believed to be pregnant, had posted images on social media of a bright red truck cab, which he proudly called “the Polar Express.” A Protestant from a family that supported Northern Ireland’s place in the U.K., Robinson has been photographed carrying the Northern Irish flag and attending pro-Union marches. Recent social media posts show him making driving trips to Sweden, Denmark, Sweden, and Saudi Arabia, transporting everything from scrap metal to carpets.

Dozens of images show him smiling in front of trucks and lorries or sitting in the cab since he was about age 20. He is also a keen football fan whose Facebook page shows he supports the Rangers and Manchester United.

While the circumstances around the deaths indicate human trafficking gone wrong, police have not concretely stated the manner in which the 39 people died, when they died, or what country they were traveling through when they died.

Belgian authorities have said the shipping container traveled from a port in Zeebrugge to the English port of Purfleet on the River Thames. The container was picked up from the ship by the tractor and driven away just after 1 a.m. on Wednesday. The bodies were discovered about 15 miles outside of London just half an hour later.

The Belgian prosecutor confirmed the time that the shipping container arrived in Belgium but could not say when the victims entered the container for transport. “It is not yet clear when the victims were placed in the container and whether this happened in Belgium,” a statement from the prosecutor’s office said.

U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson described the deaths as an “unimaginable tragedy and truly heartbreaking.” He said, “It is hard to put ourselves in the shoes of those emergency services … as they were asked to open that container and to expose the appalling crime that had taken place.” He added that “traders in human beings should be hunted down and brought to justice.”

It is not yet clear how 39 Chinese nationals came to be in Belgium or where their final destination may have been. Belgium and England have both struggled with large influxes of trafficking and immigration in recent years.

In 2000, 58 bodies of trafficking victims were found in a truck at the English Channel port of Dover in Kent. Two people in the truck had survived. Perry Wacker, a Dutch driver who had driven the truck from Belgium, was jailed for 14 years for manslaughter. The 58 had suffocated when Wacker shut an air vent in a bid to avoid detention.

Last year, three Bulgarians and an Afghan were jailed after 71 dead migrants — 59 men, eight women, three children, and a baby — were found in a lorry in Austria. The four men were subsequently jailed in Hungary, where the victims had died.

Chief Constable Shaun Sawyer, the U.K. National Police Chiefs’ Council lead for people smuggling and modern slavery, told Today on BBC Radio 4, “It’s a somber moment this morning, but it’s sadly an unsurprising one.

“What we’re dealing with … is the push factors; the war zones, the famine, the conflicts, and the crime and corruption in countries that make people want to leave and the absence of human rights and the attraction of the United Kingdom. It’s perceived by organized crime as a potential easy target,” he said, adding that smugglers are “purveyors of hope actually dealing in despair.”