Charges have been brought against a man from Northern Ireland as police in the United Kingdom continue to investigate how dozens of Asian people being smuggled through England ended up dead in the back of his truck.
Maurice Robinson, 25, was charged with 39 counts of manslaughter, the first of those police have arrested to be formally charged with a crime.
The discovery was made Wednesday morning when the bodies of eight women and 31 men were found deceased inside a refrigerated truck about 15 miles outside of London. Police have not said how the 39 people died, when they died, or what country they were traveling through when they died.
Police are still trying to identify the victims as autopsies are being performed on the 39 bodies; the Vietnamese Embassy in London set up a hotline for families looking for information on loved ones who may have been in the truck. It was initially thought that the victims were from China, but after a Vietnamese family released text messages from a 26-year-old female indicating she suffocated in the truck, the focus shifted to Vietnam.
“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,” Chief Constable Shaun Sawyer said after the discovery.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson called the deaths an “unimaginable tragedy and truly heartbreaking.”
Four others have been arrested in connection to the smuggling, but no charges have been brought against them so far.
