Four men on trial over death of 39 Vietnamese migrants in British truck
- The victims were discovered in England last October at the back of a truck, in a shocking incident that shone a light on global people smuggling
- The prosecutor said the victims had been sealed inside a pitch-black refrigeration unit, which was not turned on, for at least 12 hours
Two members of an alleged people-smuggling gang stood trial on Wednesday accused of being responsible for the deaths of 39 Vietnamese men, women and boys found suffocated in a stifling, airtight shipping container near London last year.
The victims, nine of whom were teenagers and two aged just 15, were discovered last October in a container at the back of a truck on an industrial estate in Grays, about 32km (20 miles) east of the British capital – a shocking incident that shone a light on global people smuggling.
Prosecutor William Emlyn Jones said the dead had been sealed inside a refrigeration unit, which was not turned on, in pitch black for at least 12 hours as the temperature rose to an unbearable 38.5 degrees Celsius (101 degrees Fahrenheit).
“What it must have been like inside that truck does not bear thinking about,” he said. “In short, they suffocated. There were no survivors.”
For the 39 men and women inside, that trailer had become their tomb
He said an unsent text message on the phone of one dead woman, Pham Thi Ngoc Oanh, 28, read: “Maybe going to die in the container, can’t breathe any more, dear.”
